Table 2 Selected student comments from course evaluations, Summer 2015 through Fall 2017
From: Building capacity for Public Health 3.0: introducing implementation science into an MPH curriculum
Course | Representative student feedback |
|---|---|
Design | “Course is invaluable especially because it is shaped around real-world situations.” |
“I most liked the exploration of agent-based systems” | |
“I enjoyed the use of the (Ebola) case study across the full course” | |
“[I found] NetLogo to be an excellent tool for representing and visualizing systems, including their emergent behavior” | |
“[Will take away] a better understanding of...unique ways to solve public health [challenges] using tools that are not necessarily specific to public health” | |
“[Will take away] a broad understanding of systems thinking and design thinking” | |
“[Have learned how] to approach public health problems from a systems-thinking lens [and] how to use nontraditional methods of inquiry (design thinking tools) to gain a deeper understanding” | |
Implementation | “Useful resources, tools, and skills” for “application of implementation science concepts to global health” |
“[Acquired] basic skills need to apply [implementation concepts] to real-life situations” | |
Improvement | “A very deep dive into quality improvement techniques and applications” |
“I really enjoyed the more specific, practical way of approaching problems systematically. [We] spend so much time in other courses focusing on generating robust evidence for interventions that much of the practicality is left behind. This course complemented my other coursework very well.” | |
“I will take away specific tools including the Driver Diagram, Swim Lane, PDSA cycle, and many others that I am already implementing in my professional work.” | |
“The focus of this course on quality improvement added to my enthusiasm as implementation research and quality improvement. I have already used many of the tools and technique we have discussed in my work.” | |
“[This course was] extremely practical and allows you to build real skills. Considering all other courses during my MPH, this class has been one of the best uses of my time.” | |
Evaluation | Course was “the most professionally applicable for me...I truly have a much better grasp of how to design and implement an evaluation. I am very pleased with how much context, examples, and explanation we got not just on the different types of evaluation, but when and where you’d use them, and how constraints of resources may affect that plan in real life.” |
“[S]ome of the most directly applicable coursework I have had for a long time” |