On October 7 and 8, the CRC 1342 hosted a workshop by renowned methods expert Prof. George Leckie, Professor of Social Statistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling (CMM) at the School of Education, University of Bristol, who gave an "Introduction to Multilevel Modelling Using R". 14 participants gained hands-on experience with this method for analyzing clustered data.

The two-day course introduced multilevel modeling including exercises and demonstrations in R. The main focus was on multilevel models for continuous and binary outcome variables in clustered data. The program ranged from random-intercept and random-coefficient models to growth curve and three-level models, and finally to logistic multilevel regression. Throughout the workshop, the focus was on model interpretation and the types of research questions that multilevel models are designed to address. The combination of methodological depth and hands-on work in R made the workshop an enriching experience.

The workshop was led by Professor George Leckie, a Professor of Social Statistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling (CMM) at the School of Education, University of Bristol, UK. His methodological interests are in the development, application and dissemination of multilevel and related models to analyse educational and other social and health data. He has authored over 100 journal articles, many developing or applying multilevel modelling. He has taught over 90 multilevel modelling short courses across UK, Europe, Australia and US.