PHDA testimonials

I learned about the PHDA program through browsing on web and was motivated to get more training in population health data analysis while working full-time.

Although the course load was a bit heavy at times, I think I’ve learned a lot and developed hands-on experience in analyzing population health data using SAS and ArcGIS.

I have not yet had a chance to utilize all the knowledge and skills I’ve gained in my current work, but definitely have a better understanding of results that are analyzed using ArcGIS.

The strengths of this program include: good organization of coursework, exposure to variety of relevant topics, hands-on experience using several analytical software, excellent support and feedback by instructors, and a flexible schedule.

I would definitely recommend colleagues and others to take this program for further professional development.

My program experience has been great and thank you for all the support I received from instructors and staff members in the PHDA program.

I learned about the program from observing LinkedIn profiles of people working in health research, public health, and at health authorities. At the time, I only had some work experience somewhat related to health but no health degrees and was experiencing difficulty ‘getting my foot in the door’ without the latter. The University of Victoria and this program were not familiar to me aside from the LinkedIn exposure, since I was not familiar with the offerings on the West Coast.

For online and greatly asynchronous courses, the course experiences were good, overall. The content, readings, and assignments/practice were very interesting. I look forward to referencing them and returning to them for refreshers. There are many optional resources I look forward to viewing.

However, it did feel like there was quite a lot of work in each course, from readings to forum posts to assignments. I was working full-time and was glad I only took one course at a time … since each semester was a lot of work! I am happy I chose a diverse set of courses, which were on topics I am very interested in. One course focussed on GIS skills, another on administrative data analysis skills, another focussed on epidemiological quantitative data analysis, and yet another included health program evaluation skills. These courses and their lessons were very memorable. While some specifics with SAS or ArcGIS will need to be refreshed the next time I work with them, overall principles, some common procedures, and where to find helpful guides were retained.

It is difficult to say which course provided the greatest benefit. Unfortunately, although mapping and spatial analysis are interests of mine, they are not usually relevant or appropriate for the full-time work I do. The administrative data, epidemiological statistics, and evaluation courses were great introductions to those disciplines and methods.

For my personal research and projects, I would like to use all the new skills I learned during this certificate. For my current job role, the evaluation course reinforced work planning, stakeholder engagement planning, and reporting planning skills -- their corresponding activities are prevalent at my job. The quantitative analysis and administrative data skills will be relevant to my professional and personal work.

The strengths of the program are the course offerings (which are attractive at first glance), the instructors, the practical work/applications, and the support/information network of peers. The work with PopData BC data was very engaging and a privilege – I hope that continues to be offered -- despite remote connections being a hassle sometimes.

The peer reviews were always very helpful and so were the activities/peer community in the course forums. I appreciated that one class only required a number of weekly posts for full participation grades. I personally found it daunting to participate through forum posts/responses, and usually dreaded writing mine addressing specific discussion questions.

I would completely recommend this program to others. I have already recommended it to a close colleague who asked about it.

I would also strongly recommend it to someone who wishes to transition into epidemiology or public health-related professions before they pursue graduate level studies. These courses may offer the training they need.

I would suggest that they take only one PHDA course and devote all their educational time to that one course (i.e., no other courses from elsewhere). I would also recommend they try to keep up as much as possible with the pace of the courses and to really consider the timing of various milestones in the courses – as the courses vary in intensity at different points. If their course involves remote connections to analysis software and PopData BC data, they should expect to spend a lot of time practicing and completing those assignments.

This is an incredible certificate program. It can be labour intensive and sometimes grueling/exhausting, but everything feels earned. I am amazed at how much I have learned and applied in only four courses (all on different and almost exclusive topics). Prior to this certificate, I thought I would need to pursue a degree in health to make a career transition. I feel confident that I have the necessary skills or at least the foundations for these skills -- and that pursuing another master’s or a committing to a PhD are not the only ways to acquire such skills.

I learned about it through emails from PopData BC a few years ago. I took at least one class before I enrolled in the program, so the high quality of the class and instructor, as well as the online video testimonials I watched, motivated me to enroll.

I took PHDA 01, PHDA 02, PHDA 03 and PHDA 04 and I would say that they all provided useful skills to me. I had always wanted to learn to use ArcGIS software to explore health data, and have both a geography and clinical background, so PHDA 03 and PHDA 04 were especially interesting. Through the program, I came to learn about the enormous benefits of using already-collected administrative health data, and the process for doing so. I think my skills with SAS and ArcGIS will be the most useful to me, but the larger concepts of data integrity, (PHDA 01), what type of analysis is used in certain situations (PHDA 02), and considerations when doing spatial analysis (PHDA 04) are immensely important as well. I enrolled, but withdrew from PHDA 06. I didn’t find the content interesting and it was an already busy semester for me, so this was a good decision.

Along with a colleague, I have applied for and received a grant to do a small project using Statistics Canada data through one of their RDCs. I am sure that completion of this program helped our application to be successful. I will be using many skills from PHDA 01 (metadata, manipulation of variables, SAS analysis) and PHDA 02 (which statistics are best for the analysis, what to do with missing data) in this project.

For a program that is delivered completely online, each course was organized and delivered very well. Most of the instructors were very quick with their replies to questions from students. All of the courses used practical examples to explain the material which I found really helpful for understanding how to apply the concepts in practice. In the Working with Administrative Data (PHDA 01) course, the instructors were extremely helpful, and I found the 15 minute phone meeting near the start of the course really nice. It was so much easier to go through several questions/concerns at once on the phone with person rather than I think the highly trained, expert instructors, who are approachable and provide excellent feedback are a major strength. Certainly, the small class sizes allow for that individualized feedback and a continual dialogue with instructors in the discussion boards as well. I think Moodle is very easy to use, and in general, the courses were very well organized. The voice-over step-by-step videos were very useful when learning new things in ArcGIS (PHDA 03) and could have been useful when learning any of the software, really. When I needed it, the IT support was quick to respond and helpful. PopData BC staff were always very friendly, very professional, and pro-active. UVic registration was quick and easy, and library services simple to use.

Yes, I already have! I would recommend that students make sure they have 8-10 hours per week to spend on the class. I didn’t really believe that I would spend this much when I read it, and it’s not every week in every class, but there were certainly many weeks when I spent that much time. It’s not easy while working full-time, especially if you have no experience with the software packages, such as SAS or ArcGIS. But, it’s very rewarding!

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.