Online
Master's course series Plant Breeding - Experimental Design, Data & Statistics: experimental design and quantitative analysis of breeding trials
This online course series consists of two courses covering statistical principles and experimental designs for breeding trials, including concepts such as randomisation, replication, blocking, and the use of controls. You will learn about different experimental designs, including completely randomised design, randomised complete block design, and split-plot designs. You will also learn about linear regression, analysis of variance, and generalised linear models, and be able to apply these concepts when designing an experiment.
Registration deadline: 10 February 2025
Exam date: 1 May 2025 & 5 March 2026
Please note that the dates for the academic year of 2025-2026 are yet to be confirmed, so they might still change.
Why follow this course series?
Are you a working professional in the field of Plant Breeding? Then you will benefit greatly from this course series that covers statistical principles underlying experimental designs for breeding trials. This knowledge is essential for conducting accurate experiments and making informed decisions when analysing data. We cover the connections between design principles and statistical models and assumptions, allowing professionals to understand how these concepts are related and how they impact their experiments. Additionally, the course series shows different experimental designs, such as CRD, RCB, and split-plot designs, which will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of each design and choose the appropriate design for their experiments. Furthermore, you’ll learn about the evaluation of genotype-by-environment interactions and heritability estimation, which is important for professionals in the field of plant breeding to understand the interactions between the genotype and environment and to estimate the heritability of traits, which will help in the selection of suitable genotypes.
Is this course series for you?
This course series is suitable for professionals in the field of plant breeding, agricultural research, and horticulture. The course series would be beneficial for researchers, scientists, and technicians who are involved in the design and analysis of experiments in these fields. Additionally, professionals in related fields such as crop science, genetics, and biostatistics could also benefit from the course. The course is specifically tailored to cover statistical principles underlying experimental designs for breeding trials, which is the core focus.
This comprehensive course series will provide you with the tools you need to succeed and advance in your career, especially in combination with other advanced Online Master's Courses Plant Breeding.
What you'll learn & practical information
The Online Master's course series Plant Breeding - Experimental Design, Data & Statistics consists of two courses. The courses can be taken separately as well.
Software used in this course
R including R Studio.
Self-Paced Online Course Getting Started with R
Knowledge of and some experience with R and R Studio is required in order to design experiments and perform statistical analyses. You are expected to be able to modify existing R scripts and to write short scripts to perform analyses. If the latter is not the case, you can follow the Self-Paced Online Course Getting Started with R. For more information and registration, please check this document.
Examination
Participation in the remotely proctored exam is optional. If you decide not to participate in the exam, you do not qualify for a certificate and/or Micro-credentials.
The date of examination for the Master Course Advanced Statistics is 01-05-2025 (1 May 2025) and for the Master Course Experimental Design & Data Analysis of Breeding Trials is 05-03-2026 (5 March 2026) from 08:30 - 22:00 (Amsterdam Time Zone). The duration of an exam is 3 hours. The resit will be scheduled in the week of 7 July 2025 (Advanced Statistics) and in the week of 4 May 2026 (Experimental Design & Data Analysis of Breeding Trials).
Micro-Credentials and Edubadge
Upon successful completion, a digital Micro-credentials certificate (EduBadge) with 6 study credits (ECTS) is issued. The EduBadge certifies the learning outcomes of short-term learning experiences, marking the quality of a course. More information can be found here.
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More information & Registration
You can register for this course. Have any questions? Contact Wageningen Academy.