New CSPS course series available: Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

Facts, Values, and the Scientific Method (TRN502)

This online self-paced course explores how scientific evidence can help translate societal values into policy objectives and effective policy decisions. Participants will learn about the scientific method and how it can be used to explain phenomena and evaluate actions meant to bring about a desired set of outcomes.

Topics include:

• defining different types of claims, including factual and value claims
• distinguishing value conflicts from scientific conflicts
• acknowledging the advantages and limitations of the scientific method

Evaluating Scientific Evidence (TRN503)

This online self-paced course explores the different types of evidence that can be used to support a claim or theory. Participants will learn how study design, sample size, and sampling strategy affect the strength of scientific evidence.

Topics include:

• determining whether scientific evidence supports or refutes a claim
• interpreting patterns found in study results in light of predictions
• defining indirectness and extrapolation, and recognizing their effects on achieving desired policy outcomes

Exploring Bias and Uncertainty (TRN504)

This online self-paced course explores the types of biases and uncertainties that commonly occur in the kinds of scientific studies that may inform policy decisions. Participants will learn how researchers design studies to reduce bias and uncertainty, and how to assess the reliability of those studies.

Topics include:

• assessing the risk and effect of bias in scientific studies
• interpreting uncertainty through confidence intervals, error rates, and p-values
• understanding the limits of uncertainty quantification and estimation
• understanding the assumptions used in uncertainty quantification and estimation

Weighing Evidence for Policy Decisions (TRN505)

This online self-paced course explores the process of defining, gathering and weighing evidence that is relevant to a policy decision. Participants will learn why decision-makers and scientists may have different standards of proof for the same factual claim.

Topics include:

• recognizing biases that can skew the evidence on which a decision is based
• weighing evidence to infer whether a claim is true or false, and determining the level of confidence with which this can be done
• acknowledging evidence gaps and the implications of changes to evidence over time