Core skills in epidemiology of infectious disease BIOL5326

  • Academic Session: 2023-24
  • School: School of Biodiversity One Health Vet Med
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 1
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes

Short Description

This course will teach core skills in quantitative methods, data analysis, data interpretation and experimental design for the design, evaluation and analysis of epidemiological studies.

Timetable

This course will run as15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of tutorials.

Requirements of Entry

None

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Two written assignments including a report, 1500 words (50%) and data analysis (50%)

Course Aims

The aims of the course are to

■ equip students with an understanding of core epidemiological terminology, concepts and principles

■ enable the students to understand and critically evaluate epidemiological studies in the literature

■ provide the students with the skills to conduct simple epidemiological calculations and analyses

■ provide students with the knowledge and skills to appropriately design an epidemiological study

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

 

Knowledge and Understanding: Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to

■ Critically evaluate and explain core epidemiological terminology, with reference to different types of data and study design

■ Critically evaluate and deploy the core concepts and principles underpinning epidemiological study design and data analysis

■ Critically evaluate and discuss the alternative types of epidemiological study and methods that may used to address epidemiological questions

 

Skills and Other Attributes: On completion of the course, students will be capable of

(i)Intellectual skills

■ Identifying study designs appropriate for addressing given epidemiological questions

■ Conducting simple calculations and analyses relevant to study design and data analysis

■ Critically appraising scientific data and methods from the literature

■ Formulating a research question or hypothesis

■ Presenting analysis of data in form of scientific report

(ii)Transferable/key skills

■ Reading and critical evaluation of scientific reports

■ Oral communication of scientific subject matter

■ Using statistical and database software for computation and data analysis

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.