PHDA testimonials

I learned about the PHDA program from the Director of the Social Dimensions of Health while I was taking the program at UVic. I was interested in the PHDA courses as a way to expand my skill set, enhance my knowledge of statistical software programs and gain practical skills to assist me with my PhD dissertation.

I enjoyed all the courses and the practical skills they provided especially with statistical software such as SAS, Mplus, and ArcGIS. I think I gained the most benefit from the PHDA 05 course and the PHDA 03 course. The PHDA 05 in Longitudinal Analysis and Multilevel modeling helped me gain skills in Mplus software and get an introduction to modeling. This work was very helpful in preparing me for a more advanced longitudinal modeling credit course I took at UVic last year. The PHDA 03 course in Population Health and GIS introduced me to a brand new subject area as well as practical skills in the use of ArcGIS.

I have been able to use the applied skills I learned in my role as a research assistant to help with grant applications. I will also be able to use these skills in the development of my dissertation. I plan to document the statistical software and analytic skills I have learned in all the PHDA courses on my CV. I know these skills will make me more marketable for future job opportunities.

The program has given me valuable skills and practice in a variety of statistical software. The PHDA program team including professors, IT and admin staff were all very helpful and a very supportive part of my program experience. I also enjoyed studying with fellow colleagues who had a broad range of work and research skills. The calibre of student in all my PHDA courses was very impressive and many were very willing to share their knowledge and analytic expertise. For this reason I really benefited from the partner and group work in many of the courses. Although the online format of the courses came with some weakness (as you don’t get to connect with people in person), I really appreciated how the asynchronous delivery provided flexibility to work and take courses at the same time. I also appreciated having transcripts of all the course video presentations for easy reference.

I have and do recommend this program to others. Some of my colleagues, whose work focuses more on qualitative rather than quantitative data, are a bit intimidated to consider the PHDA courses. For others who feel the same way I would certainly recommend Working with Administrative Data (PHDA 01) as a course that any research student would benefit from. I would also suggest that program applicants try to take PHDA 01 and PHDA 02 prior to PHDA 05. Although you can take courses in any order, I found the PHDA 05 course in Longitudinal Analysis and Multi-level modeling to be the most advanced level PHDA course I took.

My MSc supervisor recommended them based on the learning goals I had for my Master’s degree. UBC doesn’t offer anything like it, so we needed to look for partner institutions.

I completed the PHDA 03 Population Health and GIS and PHDA 04 Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection courses. By taking these courses, I developed an understanding of how to overlay multiple sources of data onto a geographic region (from city, to country, to continent). I developed an understanding of questions to consider in how I represent this information to the audience, so that bias in how it is represented is minimized. I developed an understanding of not only how descriptive statistics can be geographically interpreted, but also how inferential statistics can be geographically interpreted. It taught me how to begin thinking spatially in-terms of patterns of health outcomes – neighbourhood make up, neighbourhood location, infrastructure, environmental concerns, etc.

As part of my thesis.

The labs and the access to the SRTL were the biggest strengths of these courses. The SRTL had all the software, and all the data, and was really easy to access, and was well maintained and organized. The SRTL and labs made the hands-on learning REALLY effective and stress free. The labs were applied, and had very tangible learning outcomes associated with them. They were practical in purpose, and effective in implementation via the SRTL. The labs were very smooth and impactful.

Yes. I would say that future students should explore the labs as much as possible. To really forefront the learning that you get out of that. The lecture material and prep material is abstract, but if you can focus most of your time on the labs, you can experiment and learn a lot.