Audience and requirements

Our Introduction to Systematic Reviews course offers an interactive and engaging online experience, blending pre-recorded videos and learning materials, live workshops and group work. Clinics and ‘question & answer’ sessions throughout give attendees opportunities to talk about your research and learning needs directly with our experts.

Audience

This is an introductory course, aimed at anyone interested in undertaking a systematic review for the first time, or understanding how to critically appraise a systematic review to inform treatment or policy decisions.

The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) predominantly works in healthcare research, and examples throughout the course will draw on our expertise in that area. The focus of the course is on systematic reviews of interventions, rather than reviews of qualitative data. However, the course is suitable for anyone with an interest in systematic reviewing, regardless of their role or discipline.

Digital learning experience

The course is designed to be interactive and give plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion with experts and other learners in your groups, so you really have a chance to apply and strengthen your learning. Throughout there will be opportunities for ‘ask the expert’ clinics and ‘question & answer’ sessions with tutors to discuss your specific learning or research questions. There will also be group work and other interactive exercises for you to complete alongside your peers.

Technical requirements

We will send you a link to access the course website with learning materials and links for live sessions approximately 2 weeks before the course starts. Live sessions will be held on Zoom. We recommend that you install the Zoom application ahead of the course if possible for the best experience, although it is also possible to access Zoom from within a web browser.

As the course is online you will need access to a PC or laptop with a stable internet connection. You will also need a webcam and microphone (preferably a headset).

Our groupwork activities use Google applications, so you will need a Google account to access these.

If you have any questions about technical requirements please contact us crd-training@york.ac.uk

Course website

Attendees are given access to a dedicated website to guide them through the course. This includes all learning materials, as well as forums for requesting support or sharing practice with fellow learners. All of the training materials, including recordings from live presentations and workshops, are available for you to continue your learning after the course is completed.

Times, dates and daily work

There are around 2 - 2.5 hours of live teaching on the course per day, as well as approximately 2 hours of homework (additional reading, video viewing or exercises). You should expect to dedicate around half a day each day to the learning on the course.

The course runs over eight days during two consecutive weeks. It runs from Monday to Thursday on week 1, and Tuesday to Friday on week 2.

The course will start at 9.30am and finish at approximately 12.30pm (UK time) each day. A detailed course outline with more information about specific timings and how individual modules will be run is available prior to the course running.

Certificate

A Certificate of Attendance will be given out to all participants on completion of the course.