List of Bayesian statistics courses for ecologists / biologists
Since our Masters-level introductory Bayesian course was withdrawn, I am regularly asked by MSc / PhD students what options exist to get some training on Bayesian analysis.
Some training resources in Applied Bayesian Modelling that I became aware of and compiled, lately.
(Focus is currently UK / EU / Rest of the World, in that order)
Courses
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SMSTC (good, quite mathematical for biology students, from the feedback I got)
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This one runs almost every year (I think, in different places each time): Bayesian Summer School (good, a bit dense for beginners from what I’ve heard)
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Strathclyde (if it runs again next year?)
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CEH course (looking dense from the programme).
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There is a good one for population ecologists (by Kery and Schaub) which I believe will run in Argentina next - check their website or http://www.phidot.org. Or alternatively, see under Online courses / IPM
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2-days Introduction to Bayesian statistics using BUGS: https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/training/short-courses/bayescourse/. Very good feedback from a PhD student I know. Not for complete stats beginners - do come prepared and brush up your basic probability and LM/GLM theory & practice, to make the most of the course.
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This last one is gone, but hopefully will repeat: RSS. Even though it says “intermediate”, it looks like the right level for a newcomer to Bayesian stats, based on the listed contents. Sounds like they mean more like “intermediate stats level” rather than “intermediate Bayesian statistics”, so I expect it should suit students who regularly work with R and understand the basics of GLMs or MEM, for example. Contact them if unsure!
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Colorado State University - 10 day course “Bayesian Models for Ecological Data” 06/06/2022-16/06/2022 covering basic principles of Bayesian models. No tuition. Travel costs, lodging & meals covered. https://nrel.colostate.edu/projects/bayes. US only.
Online courses:
- McElreath book, slides, videos and code. Fantastic course.
- Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/bayesian (No idea - will take a look one day - feedback appreciated)
- CMR and Integrated Population Models: https://github.com/oliviergimenez/IPMworkshop. Highly recommended.
- Materials for the CONTAIN project Bayesian population modelling workshop (Bariloche, 5-13 December 2019): occupancy modelling, productivity modelling, capture-mark-recapture, and introduction to integrated population models
- Untested: Michael Franke’s online course materials
Books to get started
If you want to learn by yourself, these books could be very good starting points:
- “Doing Bayesian Data Analysis: A Tutorial with R, JAGS, and Stan” (by Kruschke: More general and up-to-date - includes Stan. Opinionated.)
- “Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists” (by Kery and Schaub: book is a bit old now but hugely relevant for ecologists)
Updates
If you can think of other/better resources, please let me know. I’ll try to update the list as come across new info. If you attend any of the courses above (or other ones), I’d appreciate any feedback.