CAUSALab's Online Courses | CAUSALab | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

CAUSALab’s Online Courses

Apply for CAUSALab’s Online Courses

To apply, please complete the application linked below. Please allow 5 business days for your application to be processed. You will receive a registration link once registration opens September 1, 2026.

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Grow your causal inference knowledge at your own pace. Registration for CAUSALab’s Online Courses fall session opens September 1, 2026.

Course content is delivered via pre-recorded videos and hands-on materials. Content is self-paced and self-graded. Participants will have the opportunity to post questions in a monitored discussion section.

Each course offers a limited number of seats for participants to enroll. Participants should complete courses at their own pace before the access deadline: December 18, 2026. After the access deadline, participants will no longer have access to the Canvas site. Please note that course slides are not currently available for download.

These courses are non-degree and non-credit. Enrollment is not eligible for visa sponsorship. All major credit cards and electronic checks are accepted for registration payment. Each course is designed for a specific audience. To understand which courses are right for you, please read our descriptions below.

Fall Course Offerings

Causal inference from observational data often relies on appropriate adjustment for confounders. This online course uses a combination of video lectures and hands-on exercises to introduce different methods to adjust for confounding in the context of time-fixed treatments. By the end of course, students will be able to:

Explain why models are generally necessary to adjust for confounding
Estimate causal effects of point interventions with adjustment for baseline confounding using various modeling approaches
Understand the relative advantages and disadvantages of each modeling approach

Audience: FCA is designed for researchers and analysts who want to acquire skills to adjust for confounding in the time-fixed setting and the foundations for more advanced methods in the time-varying setting.

Instructors: Joy Shi, Barbra Dickerman, Miguel Hernán

Delivery: FCA is available to complete September 1 – December 18, 2026. Participants should complete FCA at their own pace.

Course Outline: learn more

Prerequisites: Participants are expected to have experience with the analysis of health databases in academic or industry settings, prior introductory courses on study design and data analysis, and working knowledge of R or SAS. Participants are expected to complete the following before the start of the course:

Watch first three lectures of Causal Diagrams: Draw Your Assumptions Before Your Conclusions
Read Part I of Causal Inference: What If (Hernán MA and Robins JM, Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC 2020)

Additional Information: $450 course tuition to be paid at the time of registration. This prerequisite course is non-degree and non-credit. Please note, no refunds will be offered for Fundamentals of Confounding Adjustment (FCA) 48 hours from participant registration payment confirmation or once participant has access to the online course. Please refer to our Refund Policy for additional details.

Information on the effects of treatments in pregnancy is rarely available from randomized clinical trials. Therefore, post-approval observational studies are the main source of evidence. However, pregnancy presents specific challenges that complicate causal inference. This online course uses a combination of video lectures and hands-on activities to teach participants how to design studies to evaluate interventions in pregnancy within a target trial emulation framework. After reviewing foundational principles, the course covers both design and implementation challenges unique to pregnancy research.

By the end of course, students will be able to:

Explain why causal inference is particularly challenging in pregnancy
Specify causal questions and design studies to evaluate interventions in pregnancy by emulating a target trial using observational data
Identify data sources with the necessary information to emulate the target trial
Understand design and implementation challenges unique to pregnancy research and recognize potential solutions or implicit assumptions
Critically evaluate protocols for studies on the effect of interventions in pregnancy
Interpret real world evidence on the effect of interventions in pregnancy

Delivery: CIP is available to complete September 15 – December 18, 2026. Participants should complete CIP at their own pace.

Prerequisites: Participants are expected to have experience with health research in academic, government or industry settings, prior introductory courses on study design and data analysis, and working knowledge of R or SAS.

Instructors: Sonia Hernández-Díaz & Krista F. Huybrechts

Additional Information: Participants will get more out of this course if they have working knowledge of causal graphs, target trial emulation framework, analysis of health databases, and basic epidemiological concepts such as confounding, selection bias and immortal time bias. While not required, participants might consider completing the following:

Fundamentals of Confounding Adjustment (FCA)
Read Part I of Causal Inference: What If (Hernán MA and Robins JM, Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC 2020)

$450 course tuition to be paid at the time of registration. This prerequisite course is non-degree and non-credit. Please note, no refunds will be offered for Causal Inference in Pregnancy (CIP) 48 hours from participant registration payment confirmation or once participant has access to the online course. Please refer to our Refund Policy for additional details.

Fall 2026 Tuition

$450 per course (Fundamentals of Confounding Adjustment, Causal Inference in Pregnancy) to be paid at time of registration.

Enrollment for online courses is limited. Once registration opens, admission is granted on a first come, first served basis with a capped number of available slots.

Refund Policy

No refunds will be offered for Fundamentals of Confounding Adjustment (FCA) or Causal Inference in Pregnancy (CIP) 48 hours from participant registration payment confirmation or once participant has access to the online course. For online courses, CAUSALab and Harvard University are not liable for any technical problems or system failures on a user’s end. Participants attending the online courses are responsible for their own access to a digital device and reliable internet connection.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

CAUSALab’s Summer Courses on Causal Inference kick off annually in June. Summer courses are held live with the option to attend in-person at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health or online. To learn more about the summer course program, please navigate to the Summer Courses page.

CAUSALab’s Online Courses do not offer a tuition waiver program. CAUSALab offers an annual tuition program for in-person Summer Courses on Causal Inference

We do not offer payment via invoice. All major credit cards and electronic checks are accepted for registration payment. Upon registration, you will be sent a receipt via email.