Course Description:
This course is an upper-level course designed for students who would like to continue learning after completing the basic principles of epidemiology. The course includes: a historical perspective on infectious disease (ID) epidemiology, basic biostatistics and study design as they apply to ID outbreaks and epidemics, the multi-causal and social aspects of ID, surveillance, and control of epidemics. Emphasis will be placed on investigative techniques, epidemiological methodology, and critical thinking about epidemiological studies and data. By the end of the course, students will have a strong background in the fundamentals of infectious disease epidemiology, will be able to critique and understand current literature in epidemiology and public health, and will be able to use these tools in their practice.
GPH 712 Principles of Epidemiology or equivalent
Forum Discussions: Each student is expected to post at least twice each week in response to forum questions on that week’s topic. Initial posts are due by 11:59pm ET on Sunday. Your response must be completed by 11:59pm ET Wednesday for credit. Because this is an online course, the online discussion portion is an important way to exchange ideas with your classmates. Students will be graded on their participation and effort of their posts. These posts will take time to complete but they are an essential part of this on-line course and a great way to get to know your colleagues. Please be familiar with the course material (readings/lectures) before posting each week. Full marks will be given to those who ask questions, bring in new data from the literature or other resources, and demonstrate a thorough understanding of the topics for the week.
Some discussions will require two posts, and some will require three. Please pay attention to the instructions of any prompt to avoid any confusion.
Interpreting Key Measures of Infectious Diseases – Week 2
Report on the measures of association for an infectious disease that has not yet been eradicated and for which there is no vaccine. Requires at least two peer-reviewed publications.
Outbreak Investigation – Week 3
Respond in stages to a simulated disease outbreak investigation. You will not be able to see the prompts for the entire assignment at once; instead, additional stages will reveal themselves as you submit your responses to preceding stages.
Week 5 and 6 Oral Presentations
Each presentation will put you in the position of communicating subject-specific information to a target audience. The audience for the first presentation is the general public, and the form of the presentation is a PSA, so you will need to communicate the information you are presenting in such a way that people from a wide variety of backgrounds will understand it. The second oral presentation is toward clinicians, in the form of an educational video for a technical audience, and so should be presented as though to an audience with a great deal of experience already in your field.
Design Data Collection Tool for Infectious Disease Investigations
You will generate an online questionnaire and database using the software RedCap (see Week 2, “Thinking ahead” for instructions on how to obtain a RedCap account). For this questionnaire, imagine you are an infectious disease epidemiologist and you have confirmed an outbreak in your region. You have verified the diagnosis, and will need to select a study design and then design a questionnaire to collect risk information.
Week 4 and Week 7 Quizzes: These quizzes cover information from Weeks 1 through 4 and Week 5 through 7, respectively. The quizzes will be taken in Blackboard and you will have a single attempt for each of them. They will not be available to take after the week in which they are due passes.
Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:
Assignments | Total: 100 Points |
---|---|
Discussion Posts (2 x 4 points and 3 x 6 points) | 26 |
Written Assignments (2 x 10) | 20 |
Oral Presentations (2 x 10) | 20 |
Data Collection Tool Assignment | 14 |
Quizzes (2 x 10 points) | 20 |
Total | 100 |
Grade | Points Grade | Point Average (GPA) |
A | 94 – 100% | 4.00 |
A- | 90 – 93% | 3.75 |
B+ | 87 – 89% | 3.50 |
B | 84 – 86% | 3.00 |
B- | 80 – 83% | 2.75 |
C+ | 77 – 79% | 2.50 |
C | 74 – 76% | 2.00 |
C- | 70 – 73% | 1.75 |
D | 64 – 69% | 1.00 |
F | 00 – 63% | 0.00 |
Week 1: | Aug 29 – Sep 5 |
Week 2: | Sep 5 – Sep 12 |
Week 3: | Sep 12 – Sep 19 |
Week 4: | Sep 19 – Sep 26 |
Week 5: | Sep 26 – Oct 3 |
Week 6: | Oct 3 – Oct 10 |
Week 7: | Oct 10 – Oct 17 |
Week 8: | Oct 17 – Oct 21 (Sunday) |
Introduction Discussion
Week 1 Discussion
Response 2: Using a high-quality resource, state the incidence and prevalence of the infectious disease described in another peer’s initial post. You may report the prevalence and incidence world-wide or for a specific country. Explain the mathematical relationship between incidence and prevalence in the context of this disease.
Week 2 Discussion
Week 2 Written Assignment: Interpreting Key Measures of Infectious Disease
Describe the study, including the: study design, target population, persons (i.e., sociodemographic characteristics), place, and time of the study. Further details found in Week 2 Module.
Week 3 Written Assignment: Outbreak Investigation
Quiz 1
Week 5 Discussion (6 points)
For your initial post:
Response 1: Examine the path chosen by one of your peers. Identify at least one instance in which your peer may have been challenged by a hypothetical colleague for the choice they made—in other words, a hypothetical colleague collaborating with your peer in the scenario, who believes your peer should have chosen a different step in that instance. State specifically what the colleague might say is the better choice, and how they might support alternative path. Cite peer-reviewed publications to justify the alternative path.
Response 2: Review the initial post from a different peer as well as the response(s) to that peer’s post. How might your peer respond to the colleague’s challenge? In other words, how might your peer justify their original path, given the arguments presented against that path? Then, thinking more broadly, state at least two challenges hospitals face in reducing HAIs successfully. Why do you think these challenges are particularly difficult to overcome?
Oral Presentation 1: Public Service Announcement to Prevent Spread of an Infectious Disease
The local health department is actively trying to reduce the incidence of the selected disease. You must apply the principles of disease transmission to develop a prevention and control plan. The PSA’s function is to describe both individual prevention and control measures, as well as any community-level measures that will be put into place by the public health department.
Week 6 Discussion:
For the most recent time point, compare the incidence of the disease between the two geographies. Use an online calculator (for example, MedCalc) to test for significant differences between the incidence in the two geographies. Finally, offer an interpretation of your results.
Be sure to cite your sources of data correctly, and include links to the sources of data for the sake of your classmates.
Response 1: Thinking specifically about the disease selected by a peer: do you believe that the disease incidence calculated using these data is lower, higher or about equal to the true incidence in the two populations? Justify your answer, citing high-quality peer-reviewed journal publications to support your justification.
Response 2: Review another peer’s initial post. Assume the true incidence is lower or higher than that calculated using the provided data. Consider two scenarios: a) the error in the incidence is systematic (always low or always high) among geographies and over time and b) the error is random and varies among geographies and over time. Compare and contrast these two scenarios. State whether or you think it matters if the calculation if the calculation is wrong and if you opinion differs for scenario a and scenario b.
Oral Presentation 2: Creating an Educational Video for a Technical Audience
The presentation should be no more than 5 minutes long. Make sure the video is geared towards clinicians, a technical audience (i.e., physicians and nurses). You may use the software Screencast-o-matic, or any other software you are comfortable with, to create the video. You can use only slides, only video of yourself or a mix of both, but ensure the video is professional (e.g., dress appropriately, format your slides for an audience, etc). Upload your completed video to YouTube and submit the URL (make sure your YouTube account is not set to private).
Assignments
Written Assignment: Designing Data Collection Tools for Infectious Disease Investigations
Your online survey should include 15 to 20 questions that will aid in establishing the what, when, where and who of the outbreak. You should assume you have some information and should be using primarily close-coded questions. You may identify and use questions from previously created surveys published online by reputable sources (e.g., CDC, WHO), but at least 30% of your questions (4 to 6) should be original (created by you). At least one question should require the use of branching logic. At least one question should allow participants to “Select all that apply,” and at least one question should require the participants to select only one answer. Your instructor will provide their RedCap user name. You should add your instructor as a “user” of your survey so they can access the online designer and see your work.
You will submit 3 items for this assignment: 1) the URL to your RedCap survey, 2) a pdf copy of the survey database, and 3) a document that lists your references as well as which questions (by number) are from what source, and which questions are original and developed by you.
Quiz 2
Week 8 Discussion
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UNE's Student Academic Success Center (SASC) offers a range of free online services to support your academic achievement. Writing support, ESOL support, study strategy and learning style consultations, as well as downloadable resources, are available to all matriculating students. The SASC also offers tutoring for GPH 712 Epidemiology, GPH 716 Biostatistics, GPH 717 Applied Epidemiology, GPH 718 Biostatistics II, and GPH 719 Research Methods. To make an appointment for any of these services, go to une.tutortrac.com. For more information and to view and download writing and studying resources, please visit:
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The American Medical Association Manual (AMA) of Style, 11th edition is the required writing format for this course. Additional support for academic writing and AMA format is provided throughout the coursework as well as at the UNE Portal for Online Students.
Online resources: AMA Style Guide
The College of Professional Studies uses Turnitin to help deter plagiarism and to foster the proper attribution of sources. Turnitin provides comparative reports for submitted assignments that reflect similarities in other written works. This can include, but is not limited to, previously submitted assignments, internet articles, research journals, and academic databases.
Make sure to cite your sources appropriately as well as use your own words in synthesizing information from published literature. Webinars and workshops, included early in your coursework, will help guide best practices in APA citation and academic writing.
You can learn more about Turnitin in the Turnitin Student quick start guide.
Please review the technical requirements for UNE Online Graduate Programs: Technical Requirements
Course surveys are one of the most important tools that University of New England uses for evaluating the quality of your education, and for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on their teaching. In order to assure that the feedback is both comprehensive and precise, we need to receive it from each student for each course. Evaluation access is distributed via UNE email at the beginning of the last week of the course.
Students are responsible for submitting work by the date indicated in Brightspace.
Quizzes and Tests: Quizzes and tests must be completed by the due date. They will not be accepted after the due date.
Assignments: Unless otherwise specified, assignments will be accepted up to 3 days late; however, there is a 10% grade reduction (from the total points) for the late submission. After three days the assignment will not be accepted.
Discussion posts: If the initial post is submitted late, but still within the discussion board week, there will be a 10% grade reduction from the total discussion grade (e.g., a 3 point discussion will be reduced by 0.3 points). Any posts submitted after the end of the Discussion Board week will not be graded.
Please make every effort ahead of time to contact your instructor and your student support specialist if you are not able to meet an assignment deadline. Arrangements for extenuating circumstances may be considered by faculty.
The policies contained within this document apply to all students in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. It is each student's responsibility to know the contents of this handbook.
Please contact your student support specialist if you are considering dropping or withdrawing from a course. The last day to drop for 100% tuition refund is the 2nd day of the course. Financial Aid charges may still apply. Students using Financial Aid should contact the Financial Aid Office prior to withdrawing from a course.
The University of New England values academic integrity in all aspects of the educational experience. Academic dishonesty in any form undermines this standard and devalues the original contributions of others. It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to actively uphold the integrity of the academy; failure to act, for any reason, is not acceptable. For information about plagiarism and academic misconduct, please visit https://www.une.edu/studentlife/plagiarism.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:
Charges of academic dishonesty will be reviewed by the Program Director. Penalties for students found responsible for violations may depend upon the seriousness and circumstances of the violation, the degree of premeditation involved, and/or the student’s previous record of violations. Appeal of a decision may be made to the Dean whose decision will be final. Student appeals will take place through the grievance process outlined in the student handbook.