A practical introduction to mixed modelling in R for biologis

Dates: 19th- 22th August 2024 at Linnaeus University, Kalmar

It is a 4 day practical training course focussing on mixed modelling techniques in R. The course’s target audience are researchers in biology/environmental sciences from PhD level to faculty staff.

Description & program:

This course will introduce key concepts of mixed models as well as providing practical sessions with guidance from the instructor. Practical sessions will be in R using RStudio (materials for setup will be sent prior to the course). Practical sessions will largely use data sets taken from publications in the biological literature (focused on ecology and evolution), enabling course participants to see ‘real data’ in action and later see how these results are presented and set in a broader context. 

Day 1: Introduction and refresher on linear regression models. Introduction to mixed models (what are they, why are they useful, how to distinguish between fixed and random effects, when should you use them – and when should you not). Short practical session on pooling / ‘borrowing strength’.

Day 2: Mixed models as practical extensions of linear regression models. Brief discussion of previous day and more detailed overview of both random intercepts and random slopes models.

Full practical sessions focusing on fixed effects estimation: pseudoreplication, longitudinal data, and the benefits of random effects for improved estimation of fixed effects. Coverage of diagnostic tools and packages for visualisation of mixed models.

Day 3: Using random effects to partition variation. Introduction to using random effects to partition variance and test biological hypotheses. Practical session covering repeatability and interpreting random regression coefficients.  Closing session will introduce participants to concepts such as estimating heritability using the ‘animal model’ and partitioning covariances using multivariate modelling techniques.

Day 4: Discussion about own data.

The teacher is Dr Tom Houslay (https://tomhouslay.com/) and I can highly recommend this opportunity to anyone interested in mixed modelling.

If you want to participate please send me an email.

Markus Zöttl

Senior associate lecturer

Center for Ecology and Evolution in Microbial Systems, EEMiS

Department of Biology and Environmental Science

Linnaeus University

Email: Markus.zottl@lnu.se

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=hrXdX94AAAAJ