Welcome EPID600 Class of Spring '10 (Please read the welcome message)

    University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health (link)
   Department of Epidemiology (link)

“Epidemiology for Enlightenment”

      EPID600, Principles of Epidemiology for Public Health What is public health?

(formerly known as EPID160 - we’ve been promoted!)

Instructors: Victor J. Schoenbach, Lorraine K. Alexander

Photo of class in Rosenau Auditorium

What is epidemiology? Epidemiolog.net Information for students   (Make a request)
Course objectives EPID160/600 history Have I taken an equivalent course?
Course content EPID160/600 instructors – then Which introductory epidemiology course should I take?
Class schedules EPID160/600 instructors – and now Information for teaching assistants (Sign up now!)

Enrolled students - login to Blackboard:

Spring 2010 course information:       All information Announcements 
Course schedule:      

On campus

 

Course materials:   Lectures Textbook readings Case study instructions and questions
        * Please note that some lectures and case studies will change up to a week before they are scheduled.

Library resources:   E-journal Finder Off-campus access (FAQ) UNC-CH libraries (Ask a HSL librarian)
UNC-CH resources:   UNC-CH on-line Directory Get an ONYEN, manage your email Learning Disabilities Office

“As I had always heard, this course is extremely time-consuming, and I’m disappointed that I couldn’t give it as much time as I would have liked or as the abundance of information merits. In all fairness, I did suggest a couple of modifications in my course evaluation that might better accommodate schedules and interests of some of students in the class who are also working professionals--but that doesn't negate the excellence of the course overall. In spite of my time challenges, though, I still feel that I came away with a much better understanding and knowledge about epidemiology which I will be able to employ and build on in my daily work.

“Thanks again for opening my eyes to a field of study that I had frankly taken for granted. Because of this course, I am sure that I will continue to learn and absorb more, and spend more time thinking about epidemiological concepts and their applications in the future.”

Read more of what students are saying about EPID160/EPID600 (All comments) (Random comments)

About EPID160/EPID600 (more about EPID160/EPID600)

According to the Institute of Medicine monograph The Future of Public Health, epidemiology is the basic science of public health. This course has been organized to allow public health students the opportunity to learn epidemiology by applying its concepts to current public health concerns, thereby experiencing epidemiology as the basic science of public health. The course is designed to require problem-based learning of epidemiological concepts and methods, so that students can use epidemiology as a scientific tool for addressing the health needs of the community.

The current edition of EPID160/EPID600 is based on a cooperative learning model developed by Carl M. Shy, M.D., Dr.P.H. and Lorraine Alexander, Dr.P.H., assisted by epidemiology doctoral students and consultants from the UNC Center for Teaching and Learning and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. In this model, a major resource for learning is weekly small-group (“team”) meetings and discussions, organized around case studies, with a teaching assistant serving as a consultant.

EPID160/EPID600 is taught in two versions: on-campus (Classroom - section 001 plus one 600-level section) and Internet (any 900-level section or section 01W). The on-campus course is currently offered in fall and spring; the Internet course is currently offered fall and summer. The Internet course is a regular, 3-credit course, designed to be equivalent to the on-campus course and conducted on approximately the same schedule (view recent class schedules). Internet students are welcome to attend lectures with the classroom course. Classroom students can occasionally be enrolled in the Internet course, but only if space remains after all students from the sponsoring programs have been enrolled.

“Dear Dr. Schoenbach,
“I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your dedicated teaching in EPID 160 during Spring 2005. I am an MSPH candidate in HPAA, and I am currently doing an internship and will continue to work here as an RA through the academic year.
“I must admit that, throughout your class, I couldn't imagine how I might make direct use of epidemiology in a career in health policy. This morning, though, I've been reviewing a journal manuscript that uses risk ratios, sensitivities and specificities to assess the relationship between being up-to-date on immunizations and having received non-vaccine-related preventive services (being up-to-date is "testing positive"). I am so proud to say that I understood the concepts completely, and I was able to critically review the manuscript.
“Thanks so much for your careful and dedicated teaching!”
(S.B., Spring 2005)

Read more of what students are saying about EPID160/EPID600

Class times and locations

EPID600 has a weekly lecture on Tuesdays at 3:30pm-4:45pm in the Rosenau Auditorium (RO 133) and a weekly recitation section (“lab”) on Tuesday 5:00pm-6:50pm or Wednesday 4:00pm-5:50pm (rooms TBA). The Internet version has weekly recorded audio lectures, occasional online “Live Meetings”, the same case studies, and weekly discussion forums.

Materials

The primary course materials consist of a textbook, a set of Powerpoint slides with verbatim speaker notes, and a set of case studies (articles and questions on them. The textbook is Aschengrau, Ann, and George R. Seage, III. Essentials of epidemiology in public health. Jones and Bartlett, 2nd edition, 2007 (publisher’s web site. Vic has posted some comments on the textbook.

All materials other than the textbook are provided on-line. There is no coursepack.

Important: If you purchase or borrow the course materials from a student who has already taken EPID160/600, be sure to check for differences from the current version, since lectures and case studies are substituted, refined, or corrected each semester. Also, you must not receive or retain instructor answers to case studies or past examinations (except for those given to you by an instructor). If you have obtained or been given answers to EPID600 case studies or examinations you must inform Dr. Schoenbach and turn the material in to him.

Grading

Course grades are based on three take-home, open-book examinations, case study answers, and contributions to small learning groups. The first two examinations consist of multiple choice, calculation, and short-answer questions. (Several of the case studies are taken from recent examinations.) The third exam, often referred to as the “final paper” [see about the final paper], consists of a set of essay questions providing a critique of an assigned article. Grading of contributions to learning groups is based on evaluation of group answers to selected case studies and peer evaluations of contributions by group members [see peer evaluation criteria]. The grading algorithm and other information for spring 2010 can be found at http://www.unc.edu/epid600/classes/2010a/.

“I wanted to thank you for the email regarding the low scores on Exam 2. I was quite discouraged when I checked my answers against the exam answers. I am not accustomed to working so hard and then seeing that I still am falling short of understanding course material.
“Despite my discouragement at my results, I had been wanting to post a comment about the exam. I thought it was an excellent exam. Though at times I was close to tearing my hair out while working on it, the questions made me think analytically about the material we had learned. The exam also helped me to integrate the material. So, even though I did not perform as well as I had hoped, I still think that doing the exam helped me consolidate my learning. I don't think I ever had had the experience before of completing an exam and wanting to thank a professor for writing such a challenging exam!
(Summer 2006)

Honor System

We expect all students to be familiar with the Honor System and to abide by the Honor Code of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (see honor.unc.edu). Your observance of the Honor Code makes this course possible. The EPID600 faculty take seriously our responsibility to report violations. Cheating on examinations is a widespread problem, and we employ measures to detect it. We have had to report a number of undergraduate and postgraduate students, in both classroom and Internet courses, for knowingly violating the Honor Code. If for any reason you find yourself tempted to do so, from a feeling of desperation or disenchantment, please call or write to me in confidence, so that I can suggest a better alternative. [Important: During the semester you will receive instructor answers to case study and examination questions. Please do not give these to people who will be taking EPID600. Having the answers while working on the questions compromises the learning process and could lead to a violation of the Honor Code. The instructor answers are for your use only. If you have received instructor answers from a student who has previously taken EPID160/EPID600 please turn these over to the instructor now.]

Other (optional) resources

Dr. Schoenbach’s web-published “evolving” textbook is available in English (Understanding the fundamentals of epidemiology – an evolving text) and Spanish (Comprendiendo los fundamentos de la epidemiología – un texto en desarrollo), along with a list of published textbooks, past examinations from Dr. Schoenbach's previous introductory course, and numerous web site links for epidemiology, statistics, and related fields (see www.epidemiolog.net). Check out the page with data sources, such as the Census Bureau’s International Database with historical and projected demographic information on every country in the world. Several UNC-CH resources include Epidemiology On-line (an on-line source for epidemologic-related educational materials including: a bi-monthly epidemiology newsletter and on-line short courses), the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness Training web site (with numerous audio tutorials including most of the lectures from EPID160/EPID600). Web searches for specific topics frequently turn up many other on-line epidemiology resources. More lectures? We recommend Department of Epidemiology seminars.

For handy references or to brush up your math or writing skills, check out:

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Habla español? Parlez-vous français? Lei parla l'italiano? Spreekt u Nederlands? Fala português? Translate epidemiologic terms among Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish with Epilex. [Above translations courtesy of FreeTranslation.com; multilingual lecture greetings courtesy of TravLang Travel and Language Services and EPID600 alumni.]

Instructors

Victor J. Schoenbach, since fall 2001

Lorraine K. Alexander, since spring 1994

Teaching assistants:

Spring 2010: Jen Deese, Lauren McCullough, Lydia Feinstein, Quynh Nguyen

Fall 2009 (Classroom): Nikhil Khankari, Heidi Soeters
               (Internet): Anna Barry, Jessica Rinsky, Liz Yanik, Steven Lippmann

Past instructors and teaching assistants

For more information, please write to:

Victor_Schoenbach@unc.edu

Lorraine_Alexander@unc.edu

 

Last updated 8/8,10,18,22,26/2009vs, 12/9/2009vs, 1/2,3,12/2010vs