Statistical Inference
Johns Hopkins University · View on Coursera ↗
Taught by Brian Caffo, PhD, Roger D. Peng, PhD, Jeff Leek, PhD
Data Science
About the course
Statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions about populations or scientific truths from data. There are many modes of performing inference including statistical modeling, data oriented strategies and explicit use of designs and randomization in analyses. Furthermore, there are broad theories (frequentists, Bayesian, likelihood, design based, …) and numerous complexities (missing data, observed and unobserved confounding, biases) for performing inference. A practitioner can often
The dissent
The most-upvoted critical review (58 votes, 1.0★).
“When you start statistics with practical examples, people tend to presume certain things (e.g. independence is given like in munchausen example) so I sort of understand this desire to keep every definition abstract/pure for solid foundations but damn, this course goes way too far. I took statistics at uni and this was a refresher on the specialisation track but the way Bayes' rule was covered made me doubt what I knew. Oh also, the instructor does some of my biggest pet peeves which are (1) using his preferred notations without actually reading it out loud first (2) unnecessary use of synonyms which just distract me from what he actually means (3) reading from slides without any context as to how these concepts are used.”
Coursera's 4.2 comes from 4,456 ratings. Of those, 9.3% are 1–2★.
Starisk reads the reviews learners voted most helpful, and weights each by the square root of its votes: a review with 80 upvotes counts about five times one with 2. Unvoted reviews are not skipped out of laziness — by this model they carry no evidence that other students endorsed them.
That measures what the most-endorsed reviews say, not “true quality.” The rating distribution above is the whole population, so you can see the sample next to it.
Reviews read on 23 Oct 2026.Read them on Coursera ↗