PHDA testimonials

I had completed my master’s in Public Health and was looking for training that would supplement my degree. In particular, I was interested in learning new skills in data analysis. A colleague had mentioned the PHDA program to me some time ago. Through a Google search, I found the program details and it looked like a good fit for me.

I enjoyed all the courses. In particular, I found the GIS course very interesting and fun as I had never worked in this subject area before. I also benefitted from learning new SAS skills in other PHDA courses. Prior to taking the program, I had no knowledge of SAS.  I think I enjoyed the PHDA 06 Health Services Program Monitoring and Evaluation course the most.  Although I had taken an evaluation course in my Master’s program, I found the PHDA 06 course very good at clarifying information and dividing the evaluation process into very practical/applied steps/stages.

I plan to apply my new skills within future job/research projects. I am very interested in pursuing employment opportunities in the area of program planning and evaluation. I have had an interest in this area for some time and the PHDA 06 course really solidified my desire to work in this area.

The instructors were all very knowledgeable and experienced.  They really supported students through engaging conversations and encouragement for our work assignments. Courses like the PHDA 03 Population Health and GIS provided step by step directions and support. The PHDA courses catered to both beginner students as well as those with experience in the field. Instructors were always willing to provide extra resources and support – the courses were never boring! The program support and general design also supported student needs too.

Yes, I would definitely recommend this program to others. I would like others to know that both the course content and expertise of instructors provides a great learning experience.

I had never done an online course before taking this program. I found the online environment provided a good learning experience. Both the Moodle and Secure Research Training lab environments worked well for me.

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.

I Iearned about the program through the UVic Continuing Studies website while I was an under grad at UVic. I later worked for the Provincial government. As a government employee I was eligible to get financial support for professional development training. The PHDA program was a good fit for the analytic skills I needed. I already had some experience working with Administrative data.

I found the courses I took, PHDA 01 Working with Administrative Data, PHDA 02 Epidemiological Statistics, PHDA 03 Population Health and GIS and PHDA 04 Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection, all followed in suite to cement my knowledge and skills in methods and research design. The first two courses, PHDA 01 and PHDA 02 were more of a review/refresher for me from my previous academic and work experience. The PHDA 01 course included learning SAS skills and creating your own study. The PHDA 02 course focused more on practical analytic work and less on statistical theory.  My favourite course was PHDA 04. It applied all the background/analytic skills I had learned within previous PHDA courses and taught me new geospatial skills.

My new skills would have proven useful in my previous role as a policy analyst for the provincial government, however I have switched positions. I intended on using my SAS skills and geospatial analysis tools to analyze the MSP data I had access to.

My new job is as a strategy analyst and the certificate has provided me knowledge about the potential use of administrative data to inform decision making. In completing this course, I have added another domain of knowledge which I can consider when developing strategic plans related to IM/IT.

One of the greatest strengths of the program is the access to the Secure Research Training Lab. It holds practical, well written, easy to follow lab activities in data analytics and a very useful de-identified BC Heath Dataset as well as other health related training datasets for applied learning. This provided an excellent learning environment for professional development training in data analytics.

Yes, I would definitely recommend this program to others.  For those just starting the program within the PHDA 01 course, I would recommend that they work carefully through the SAS components and try to keep their project work simple. It is also best to take one course at a time if you are working or taking full time studies.

My thesis supervisor told me about the program. My thesis project involved the analysis of Alberta Health’s administrative data on influenza vaccination and I needed to have a working knowledge of the tools of administrative data.

The courses were quite intensive but they provide the analytic tools that were complementary to the course experience I gained in my graduate program. I gained evaluation, spatial analytic and advanced analytical skills for modelling health outcomes data. Health Services Program Monitoring and Evaluation, Longitudinal Analysis and Multi-Level Modeling of Population Health Data, and GIS and Population Health were the courses that provided the greatest benefits to me. 

I have actually used the skills I gained in the administrative data course to analyze my thesis data.  I am currently  working on a research project in which I am trying to incorporate the advanced analytical skills I gained in the ‘ Longitudinal Analysis and Multi-Level Modeling of Population Health Data’ course to specify my models. In the near future, I plan to incorporate some elements of spatial analysis into my research work.

The strengths of this program include:

Excellent, experienced instructors for each of the courses. Use of fellow students as peers to give feedback on assignments was a particular strength of the PHDA06 course in Health Evaluation and Program Monitoring. Also, discussion forums that promoted exchange of information amongst students using real life examples.

I would recommend the program to working professionals, researchers, and graduate students.

My suggestions for individuals entering the PHDA program would be to prepare for a very intensive program and to avail yourself of  the full range of excellent resources that are available for the program, including the reading materials, the discussion forum, the instructors, the program coordinators, the program lead and the IT online help desk. I found all of them essential to achieving a successful outcome.

I was looking at programs that were more data-oriented because my data skills were not quite high enough to get a good data-centric job. So, while I was finishing my MA, I figure PHDA would serve me well. Plus, the tuition was much lower because I was a student!

I found the Working with Administrative Data (PHDA 01) was a good course. It was less intensive and slower paced than the other PHDA courses. I took this course last because of my time frame for completing four courses. It would probably have been better to take this course earlier on.  The Population Health and GIS (PHDA 03) course was the most interesting course I took. The labs were easy to follow and I enjoyed the final project.  When I first enrolled in the program, I thought that PHDA 01 and PHDA 03 would be the most valuable courses for my skill development but in the end it was the Health Evaluation and Program Monitoring (PHDA 06) course that really helped me land a job after graduation. PHDA 06 was different from the other PHDA courses. It felt a bit like a satellite course in the program as it included a health evaluation project rather than data analysis lab work. I learned a lot from the peer review process we used.

I just started working after graduation, but so far, I have applied evaluation skills that I learned from the Health Evaluation and Program Monitoring (PHDA 06), including logic models, evaluation methodology, gantt charts and interview guides. My current role, as an Evaluation Lead, will also include some data analysis, so the Working with Administrative Data (PHDA 01) and Epidemiological Statistics (PHDA 02) courses will be helpful for that too.

I think the BC-specific focus is the main strength. I came out understanding more about the data available to help with BC-specific health policy. Perhaps, this doesn’t help attracting students outside of BC, but is great for our province’s capacity for good health decision making.

I have recommended this program to others. However, I also warned them that it was a lot of work – especially Epidemiological Statistics (PHDA 02). I think my estimated hours per week for this course were at least 15.  I also found the group work in PHDA 02 more time consuming than the other PHDA courses.  The work in the Secure Research Training Lab (SRTL) can also increase the amount of time you need to spend on the courses depending on group work or your knowledge of the subject matter.