PHDA testimonials

I learned about this program through the Canadian Association of Geographers website as I was a member of this group in 2013 and have a degree in Human Geography. At the time I enrolled in the program, I was working directly in population health research and I felt that I needed to upgrade my data analysis skills.

In the past, I had done one short online course in mapping within my Master’s program but it was primarily a theoretical course. I was attracted to the PHDA program because of the applied nature of the courses.  I found all of the PHDA courses very useful, and at different times during my program different courses served me better. For example, I was doing mapping in my job when I took the Population Health and GIS (PHDA 03) course.  Then later I happened to be using statistics in my job when I took the Epidemiological Statistics (PHDA 02) course.  In hind sight, I wish I had completed the courses in order of least difficult to most difficult, as the order in which I took the courses affected the learning curve involved for me. (i.e.: I did PHDA05 before I had taken PHDA01 where I could have learned basic SAS skills).  I found PHDA03 and PHDA02 the most useful to me as they supported my immediate work needs the most.

Over the two years (2013-2015) it took me to finish the program, I had three different jobs. All of them have been contract or maternity leave positions, and I believe the data analysis and mapping skills have helped me to be employable in each situation. All the courses have supported my knowledge, skills and confidence to use data more effectively. In particular the way I approach the organization, structure and use of data has benefitted my work in many ways.

I liked the knowledge of the instructors. They seemed very willing and able to give constructive and positive feedback, even at times when I struggled most with personal issues that affected my ability to do my best coursework. I liked being able to use an applied project in PHDA03 to complete one of my course assignments as it made the learning very applicable to the real world. I feel the certificate was a great complement to my human geography work during my masters in environmental science.

I would highly recommend this program to anyone wishing to gain a strong foundation in GIS and data, even those individuals not directly involved in the population health field. All of the courses force the student to think critically, develop time management skills, become effective data organizers, and learn to work in a virtual team towards a common goal within very tight parameters. I found all staff related to the various components of the program very knowledgeable and considerate.

I found the course formats to have a strong mix of individual learning, group work, academic research, and practical data analysis application. I was fortunate to obtain funding from CIHR to take this program and also benefitted from gaining the student rate for the courses. I would encourage others to look at these options early as they are time and availability sensitive but are definitely worth the effort and personal follow up.

I got to know about the program through my former master’s thesis supervisor. My quest to broaden my knowledge in geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial epidemiology motivated me to enrol in the program.

I am really satisfied with the course especially the hands-on experience gained while using ArcMap to map diseases and assess spatial dependences. Skills developed include generating choropleth map, joining attribute tables to shapefile and perform geographically weighted regressions.  Courses which benefited me the most are PHDA 03-Population Health and Geographic Information System (GIS), PHDA 01-Working with Administration Data and PHDA-04-Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection.

I have not yet applied the acquired skills to my research, but the skills will be useful for my future research work.

The program’s strength emerged from how the courses were offered with typical examples such as offering PHDA 03 before PHDA 04 and also the incorporation of Lab work into the course curriculum which provided the opportunity for more practical knowledge to be gained. Another strength is the friendly learning environment and willingness of the instructors to go an extra mile to assist students to understand concepts and course materials.

Yes. I recommend this program to students, especially those with no prior knowledge in spatial epidemiology and GIS and are keen on knowing more about these areas.

I have not regretted enrolling in this program, and have actually enhanced my skill set.