PHDA testimonials

I learned about the PHDA program from the Director of the Social Dimensions of Health while I was taking the program at UVic. I was interested in the PHDA courses as a way to expand my skill set, enhance my knowledge of statistical software programs and gain practical skills to assist me with my PhD dissertation.

I enjoyed all the courses and the practical skills they provided especially with statistical software such as SAS, Mplus, and ArcGIS. I think I gained the most benefit from the PHDA 05 course and the PHDA 03 course. The PHDA 05 in Longitudinal Analysis and Multilevel modeling helped me gain skills in Mplus software and get an introduction to modeling. This work was very helpful in preparing me for a more advanced longitudinal modeling credit course I took at UVic last year. The PHDA 03 course in Population Health and GIS introduced me to a brand new subject area as well as practical skills in the use of ArcGIS.

I have been able to use the applied skills I learned in my role as a research assistant to help with grant applications. I will also be able to use these skills in the development of my dissertation. I plan to document the statistical software and analytic skills I have learned in all the PHDA courses on my CV. I know these skills will make me more marketable for future job opportunities.

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. I also enjoyed studying with fellow colleagues who had a broad range of work and research skills. 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. Although the online format of the courses came with some weakness (as you don’t get to connect with people in person), I really appreciated how the asynchronous delivery provided flexibility to work and take courses at the same time. I also appreciated having transcripts of all the course video presentations for easy reference.

I have and do recommend this program to others. Some of my colleagues, whose work focuses more on qualitative rather than quantitative data, are a bit intimidated to consider the PHDA courses. For others who feel the same way I would certainly recommend Working with Administrative Data (PHDA 01) as a course that any research student would benefit from. I would also suggest that program applicants try to take PHDA 01 and PHDA 02 prior to PHDA 05. Although you can take courses in any order, I found the PHDA 05 course in Longitudinal Analysis and Multi-level modeling to be the most advanced level PHDA course I took.

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.