PHDA testimonials

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PHDA full testimonial
How did you learn about the program and what motivated you to enroll?

I was in Canada and the program seemed a perfect fit to my interests.

Tell us about your course experience. What skills did you develop and which courses provided the greatest benefit to you?

I thoroughly enjoyed the courses, although sometimes I had trouble keeping up.  Having said that, I found the lecturers very sympathetic to my needs.  It was great to develop more understanding of the analysis of administrative datasets and in particular learning how to use geocoded data.

How have you been able to (or how do you plan to) apply your new skills in your work/research?

I will use my skills to undertake some more specific analysis using linked data. In particular, I plan to undertake some mapping of hotspots where illicit drug use is most common. For my interests at this time I found longitudinal data analysis and geocoding the most helpful. This is because with increasing use of multiple drugs it is important to determine where outbreaks occur and be able to establish cohorts of people who use these substances and then follow over time determining predictors of change.

What do you think were the strengths of this program? Please provide examples.

The flexibility of the modules was very good and I appreciated learning from other students when there was something I couldn’t solve. For example when I couldn’t run a particular program, I could easily get assistance with this.  Having access to previous assignments on the same topics made things much easier as well.

Would you recommend this program to others? If so, what recommendations/suggestions would you give those interested in applying to this program?

Yes, I would recommend this program and regularly circulate information about the courses as updates come to me.

Any additional comments you would like to add?

It was a really great experience and I learnt a great many new things so thank you!

 

Lucinda Burns

Lucinda Burns, Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales

 

PHDA full testimonial
How did you learn about the program and what motivated you to enroll in the PHDA course(s) you chose?

I learned about the program when I tried to find a training program in the public health area. Later, one classmate also recommended that I enrol in the program. My motivation to take this program was to improve my analysis skills and use them in my work.

Tell us about your course experience. What skills did you develop and which courses provided the greatest benefit to you?

I learned how to use several popular software programs such as SAS, R, ArcGIS and Mplus. All of them are very helpful. The PHDA 06 course about Health Services Program Monitoring and Evaluation helped me evaluate my work program.

How do you plan to apply your new skills in your work/research?

Actually, I used SAS, R and ArcGIS in my work when I was taking the PHDA courses. I hope multilevel modelling analysis will be used in my future work as well.

What do you think were the strengths of this program? Please provide examples.

The courses taught software skills in SAS, ArcGIS, Mplus and also used administrative metadata to teach us how to analyze those data. They matched the routine activities that I am involved in at my work place. The evaluation of the PHDA program is helpful to guarantee the high quality of program.

Would you recommend PHDA courses to others? If so, what recommendations/suggestions would you give those interested in completing these courses?

I would like to recommend PHDA courses to others. I believe the program is very practical and useful to those working in the public health field. It provides a good opportunity for the development of a future career plan.

Are there any additional comments that you would like to add?
The courses in the program are very helpful but it is not easy to finish them, especially when I had to work in the daytime and then do course studies after work and on the weekend. However, all courses are valuable. I have acquired the knowledge and skills which will forever help me in my work and study.

 

Wenti Xu, Data Analyst

 

PHDA Overall program/course experience
"It was really good for me to gain more experience working with large data sets and use a secure research environment to get used to the complexities of various kinds of datasets we come across daily. The spatial data and network analysis work, applied longitudinal analysis techniques and foundational SAS skills I learned really benefitted my research work. Now when I am faced with new problems, I feel better equipped and much more confident to handle them.

I have done some online courses before. I felt the courses in this program were well organized. The labs were very useful and very applied, instructors were always available to answer questions and the weekly or biweekly course modules provided structure but also some flexibility."

Gina Martin, Research Associate, Centre for Addictions Research of BC

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PHDA Overall program/course experience
"Great instructors with content expertise who are also very accessible for extra support, good class size with diverse classmates, and flexibility that online learning offers."

Chisato Ito, Clinical Consultant

 

PHDA 03 Population Health and Geographical Information Systems
"Overall, the PHDA 03 course experience was great. The greatest benefit to me was learning about GIS and practicing the learning through lab assignments with ArcGIS."

Youn Choi, Senior Analyst

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