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.

Wendy de Gomez, Analyst Capital Planning, Waterloo Catholic District School Board

I found a strength of the program to be the engagement of the other students, who are usually all from diverse backgrounds with varying levels of experience with the content. It was helpful to learn from each other. The workload was also quite manageable for those who are working full-time in addition to the courses. The teachers also all seemed knowledgeable and passionate about the topics, and were willing to help students answer their questions or provide assistance for the course projects.

Sarah Costa, Health Economist BC Cancer Agency

I was browsing for some relevant programs that would complement my current job as an epidemiologist. The PHDA courses looked good, particularly the GIS ones which I wanted to learn as it hadn’t been part of my education up to that point. The coursework was comprehensive but not too time consuming. The GIS courses were fantastic and provided great information. I liked the method of instruction – videos that walked you through the steps of an assignment accompanied by PDF’s, which I thought helped me learn efficiently.

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. 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.

The skills learned in this programme are highly and directly relevant to my doctoral research, and are being used on a near-daily basis. For example, I use both SAS and GIS to analyse various administrative data sets, and have found that the statistical background gleaned from this programme has enabled me to read more critically and use more sophisticated analyses in my own work. The diversity of courses is an immediate strength, as is the online format.

Overall the program was very helpful to my knowledge and skill development in the field of healthcare analytics. The program exceeded my expectations particularly because of the remotely accessed data analytic lab work that was more challenging than I anticipated. This work was very practical and very much oriented to real life case examples. The calibre of students in my courses was also very high as most were working professionals who brought valuable experience and knowledge to the discussion forums and project work.

I took the Population Health and GIS (PHDA 03) course and loved it! The opportunity to work with GIS technology and expand my skill set in this area was invaluable. It also helped to visualize the outbreak work I had been doing previously, and increase my understanding of what happens in these scenarios. I plan to focus my work more specifically on infectious diseases, and the GIS skills I learned will be invaluable for visualizing and understanding their impacts more concretely.

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 the Moodle course site is very easy to use, and in general, the courses were very well organized. Through the program, I came to learn about the enormous benefits of using already-collected administrative health data, and

Amy Klepetar Assistant Professor & Coordinator, School of Nursing, UNBC

I felt the program’s strength emerged from how the courses were offered sequentially and the incorporation of lab work into the course curriculum which provided the opportunity for more practical knowledge to be gained. Another strength was the friendly learning environment and willingness of the instructors to go the extra mile to assist students to understand concepts and course materials. I recommend this program to students, especially those with no prior knowledge in spatial epidemiology.

I would like others to know that both the course content and expertise of instructors provides a great learning experience. I enjoyed all the courses. I found the GIS course very interesting and fun as I had never worked in this subject area before, and I also benefitted from learning new SAS skills in other PHDA courses. I have had an interest in [the area of program planning and evaluation] for some time and the PHDA 06 course really solidified my desire to work in this area.

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 [PHDA05] and geocoding [PHDA03] 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 then follow over time determining predictors of change.

Lucinda Burns Associate Professor

I would definitely recommend this program to my colleagues or others who would like to develop analytical skills and knowledge in data analysis and the use of health data. I benefited by having access to various analytic tools and different types/sources of health administrative data. I did not find these kinds of courses were available to me when I was at University. In addition, I had very practical hands-on practice using statistical analytic tools such as SAS or ArcGIS, which are not freely available for public use. I found the Moodle course site was well organized with good technical support. The instructors were also helpful.

Allowing students to gain hands on experience remotely with software packages such as ArcMap, SAS and Mplus while having the flexibility to work full time is invaluable. Also having the opportunity to use Population Data BC's administrative data with these packages offered a type of learning experience that I could not have had anywhere else.

Adele Balram, Data Analyst New Brunswick Institute for Research and Training Data

I found the courses I took, PHDA01, PHDA02, PHDA03 and PHDA04 all followed in suite to cement my knowledge and skills in methods and research design. My favourite course was PHDA04. It applied all the background/analytic skills I had learned within previous PHDA courses and taught me new geospatial skills.

The Secure Research Training Lab (SRTL) was the best. It was a bit complicated to start with for the first time, but I quickly got used to logging on and working in the environment. It's well worth the effort to be able to do hands-on work with data, with peer and instructor support, and very good technical support (the few times I needed it). Although you are only required to take four courses to achieve the certificate, I took all six courses available. I felt all courses were very positive experiences for me, with top notch students and teachers who were very engaged and supportive.

Sophy Zhang Program Administrative Coordinator

I would recommend this program to others, especially those I work with. The courses are great for professional development if individuals want to acquire new skills or keep their current skills up to date.

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.

I would recommend the program to working professionals, researchers, and graduate students. The program had many strengths including: excellent, experienced instructors for each of the courses; use of fellow students as peers to give feedback on assignments (this was a particular strength of the PHDA06 course in Health Evaluation and Program Monitoring); and discussion forums that promoted exchange of information amongst students using real life examples.

I would recommend this program to anyone working in the public health field that is handling or interpreting data and looking to update or acquire new skills. The courses were of high quality, good value and appropriate for anyone at the introductory or intermediate level. For a program that is delivered completely online, each course was organized and delivered very well. 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.