| Responsible Department | Department of Large Animal Sciences | ||||||||||||
| Course Dates | The entire course is from week 32 to week 42. The on-campus part takes place from 6 to 12 September 2012, with all-day lectures and exercises. The remaining weeks are run as e-learning with expected 10-20 hours workload per week. | ||||||||||||
| Course Registration | To sign up for the course, please send an e-mail to Søren S. Nielsen at ssn@life.ku.dk. Please also remember to add the course to your PhD plan. | ||||||||||||
| Deadline for Registration | 1 July 2012. | ||||||||||||
| Credits | 6 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||
| Level of Course | PhD course | ||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | The course is based on blended learning, starting with 4.5 weeks of e-learning, 1 week on-site at Frederiksberg Campus, followed by 4.5 weeks e-learning. | ||||||||||||
| Language of Instruction | English | ||||||||||||
| Course Content | |||||||||||||
| The course is the first of two courses in Veterinary Epidemiology. The aim of the course is that the participants should be able to design an epidemiological study in a population, where there is a clear description (and association between) hypothesis, study design, sampling methods, measures of frequency and association, nature of data, etc. Furthermore, the course focuses on practical data management (including data control, establishment of a data base and data editing). There will be no analyses of participant data, but the protocol must be based on the individual projects. The protocol can be written with reference to the data used for the course Veterinary epidemiology, part 2 (course no. LPhD103). Final examination is based on a report submitted in week 41. This report is a protocol of an epidemiological study, which the student plans to conduct. | |||||||||||||
| Teaching and learning Methods | |||||||||||||
| The first part of the course includes course introduction, and introduction to the software R, to e-learning environment (Absalon) and self-study of basic epidemiology. The following 5 days of the course occurs on-campus and is a mixture of lectures, plenum discussions and exercises. During the next weeks, participants are working with their protocol discussing protocols with other participants via e-learning environment. The protocol is handed in in week 41 and the examination is held the following week. Each participant is expected to bring a laptop for the exercises. The laptop must have Microsoft Word (or compatible software) and R installed. Instructions for R installation will be given during the first e-learning week. | |||||||||||||
| Learning Outcome | |||||||||||||
| The course is the first module in Veterinary Epidemiology. It focuses on planning an epidemiological study by writing the outline of a protocol for carrying out an observational study. The course introduces the concepts associated with basic epidemiology, e.g. study objectives and hypotheses, study design, nature of data, data management and measures of frequency and association. The focus is on practical application of the concepts, by writing the protocol and by practical data management using R. At the end of the course it is expected that the participant has the following qualifications: Knowledge: Identify an epidemiological problem to be investigated using relevant epidemiological and statistical methods. Skills: Design studies, collect and store data in a database and evaluate data quality. Develop a research protocol using relevant epidemiological methods. Competences: Collaborate scientifically with epidemiologists and statisticians and other relevant scientists. Be able to evaluate the validity and reliability of the epidemiological study in relation to generalising future study results to other populations than just the study population. | |||||||||||||
| Course Literature | |||||||||||||
| Houe H, Ersbøll AK, Toft N: Introduction to Veterinary Epidemiology. Biofolia. 2004. Dalgaard P: Introductory Statistics with R. Springer. 2008. | |||||||||||||
| Course Material | |||||||||||||
| Exercises and notes will be provided in the e-learning environment | |||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||
| Søren Saxmose Nielsen, ssn@life.ku.dk, Department of Large Animal Sciences/Populationsbiology, Phone: 353-33096 | |||||||||||||
| Other Lecturers | |||||||||||||
| Nils Toft | |||||||||||||
| Course Fee | |||||||||||||
| Free of charge for Ph.D. students under the Open Market for Postgraduate Courses inDenmark and from NOVA-partners. | |||||||||||||
| Type of Evaluation | |||||||||||||
| Project report and presentation of report. Prior to the exam a number of mandatory tasks must be passed. | |||||||||||||
| Work Load | |||||||||||||
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