Peer Review

MedCalc's Free statistical calculators

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: May 19, 2022 by Statistics

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

MedCalc is a statistical software package for biomedical research. The full package is sophisticated, expensive and research-oriented. But there are thirteen free statistical calculators suitable for a larger, general audience: Test for one mean, Test for one proportion, Fisher's exact test for 2x2 table, Comparison of means, Comparison of proportions, McNemar test on paired proportions, Comparison of correlation coefficients, Comparison of Coefficients of Variation, Relative risk, Odds ratio, Diagnostic test evaluation, Confidence interval for a rate, Comparison of two rates.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

This site would be useful for self-guided study/review, self-paced and individual student practice. As well, for anyone who is doing biomedical research. It could also be used as an interactive classroom statistics learning tool.

For the beginning general user: statistical calculator for in-class or home use.

Technical Requirements:

Any browser

Identify Major Learning Goals:

For beginning general users: To use a variety of common, elementary statistical tests.

Also for advanced or medical users with more specific needs and goals.

It is a useful statistical software package for biomedical research with free statistical calculators for inferential statistics.

Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate school. The (paid) research tools would suit any academic looking for materials and contents in inferential statistics including professionals and anyone doing biomedical research.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Elementary statistics for a few of the tests. More advanced statistics and medical knowledge for some tests.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

There are thirteen free statistical calculators suitable that can be used online with a browser by entering the required "observational" data, and null hypothesis if needed. They offer interactive statistical visualizations that will allow statistics students to learn the concepts experientially. In most of the calculators, there is the description, interpretation, require input, results, literature, manuals, computational details, how to cite the page and recommended books. The calculators are:

1) Test for one mean, 2) Test for one proportion, 3) Fisher's exact test for 2x2 table, 4) Comparison of means, 5) Comparison of proportions, 6) McNemar test on paired proportions, 7) Comparison of correlation coefficients, 8) Comparison of Coefficients of Variation, 9) Relative risk, 10) Odds ratio, 11) Diagnostic test evaluation, 12) Confidence interval for a rate, 13) Comparison of two rates.

Computational notes explain the purpose and formula and provide additional references.

Tests 1, 2, 4, 5 are most likely to be encountered in a general elementary statistics setting.

Concerns:

The description does not include information about what is the purpose of each topic and what it is used for.

Some of the tests have minimal explanation. Most are deliberately aimed at medical uses rather than general statistics.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This group of calculators is valuable for students, professionals and academics who want to study, review statistics and doing some biomedical research. This is especially helpful for trying some “input” that could provide a good result in their biomedical research.

Concerns:

This material fails to address Statistics as a powerful tool in making decisions. Identifying learning objectives would be useful to guide the users to choice the best statistical topic for their biomedical research.

This collection is not designed as a teaching tool. It is simply a free test calculator. But it could be used for practice and exploration, linked to explanations elsewhere.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The calculators are easy to use and navigate. At the bottom of each calculator there is an option to mail a PDF copy of the page.

The user interface is simple and calculations and results are instantaneous. The quantity and quality of explanation varies.

Concerns:

It would be helpful to include some exercises involve making decisions based on data. The students may understand that statistics is a kind of calculator that offer results but they do not know what to do about it.

Most of the tests require additional statistical background or knowledge of a medical setting where they are used. For those wishing to use the complete software, registration and fee are required.

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