Course testimonials 2024

Public Health Law and Ethics, January 2024

• This course was held for the first time and I definitely would recommend it to other students. Hope you keep this course in your SSPH+ program.
  
• I really liked the combination of lecturers' inputs and class work/active participation. I also liked that we actively worked during class instead of doing an assignment after. The lecturers were great!
  
• Very interactive, interesting exercises and discussions :
  - Opportunity to discuss topics related to our specific projects/fields
  - Good mixture of theory, exercises and breaks.

A Step-By-Step Approach for Designing and Using Questionnaires, February 2024

• The atmosphere created in the classroom, the fact that the lecturers were very approachable and enthusiastic. Additionally, that we had time to complete the group assignment during the course.
• The course was very well organized, notably the complementary between lectures and group exercices.
• It was a great course! I liked that we had a chance to do a group work project and apply the concepts right away.

Systematic Review and Evidence Synthesis, February 2024

• AMAZING course, very hands-on, clear but advanced enough.
• I thought the course was really well taught overall, but what really exceled was the excellent balance between lecture and practicals throughout the four days which gave us the opportunity to immediately put our skills to use in a "real" example continuously. It also made it easier to engage with the lectures when we had some breaks to discuss and work ourselves.
• 1)The solid experience (theorethical and practical) of all teachers in the matter
  2) The combination of theorethical sessions with practicals, and how they both were very well coordinated and complementary
  3) The teacher in charge of the practicals was exceptional! Highly motivated, strong competencies and skills on the topics, resolutive to overcome challenges and requests by students.

The Swiss Health System: Key Characteristics and Policy Challenges, February 2024

• Excellent course. I would highly recommend it to other students.
• The experience, expertise, charisma, and passion of the lecturers. It was such a pleasure to attend these lectures and participate in the discussions.
• The course was well structured, the teachers were committed and encouraged discussion. The course gives a good overview.

Basics of Scientific Writing in English: A Structured Method for Organizing and Writing Better, Faster Papers, March 2024

• Great course, which I would recommend without hesitation!
• Fantastic teacher and human being, and the way she shared her knowledge with us was inspiring. I really appreciated her feedback on the homework and her willingness to help as much as possible. The insights she gave us about the submission and the peer review process, particularly how to deal with rejection, reply to reviewers, and interpret some reviews, will be very helpful to me. I thought the acceptance rate was much higher. Knowing that rejection is normal, I will try to keep this in mind when I submit my first paper.
• I like everything, in particular the assignments and the feedback from the facilitator are very useful to improve scientific writing skill such as how to write different paragraphs with the appropriate structure. My best ever teacher for short course training. She is very effective focused with excellent time management. I get surprize the knowledge and skill I got from her just only with two days lecture it is amazing.

Course testimonials 2023

Basics of Scientific Writing in English: A Structured Method for Organizing and Writing Better, Faster Papers, February 2023

• This was one of the best courses (if not the best course) I have ever taken. - I was able to benefit greatly from the teachers's vast knowledge of the field. - It was enriching to hear about her experiences she gained over the many years she has been in the field. - We got a lot of very practical and helpful tips (e.g. how to deal with reviewers, how to use the outline view) - much of the content was completely new to me and very interesting - The effort the teacher made to give us all written feedback on our assignments in such a short period of time Thank you for this exceptionally helpful course!
  
  
• Brilliant course, very structured, clear slides and language, fast-paced and engaging, packed with extremely helpful tipps and and great exercises. I also appreciated the regular breaks as they helped me stay fresh and concentrated. This is really one of the best and most useful courses I have taken as a PhD, I'm very thankful for it!
  
  
• The teacher did a wonderful job of giving an all-rounder course in scientific writing. She shared her experience, gave very helpful tips, and talked also about the right mindset. I would recommend this class to anyone in the field. Even further, I think all starting PhD students would benefit from this tremendously. When you are at the beginning of a PhD journey, it might be even easier to implement many of the approaches taught.

Understanding Social Inequalities and Social Problems in Health!, April 2023

• Very relevant (and not often properly covered) topic for public health; 2) Very relevant reading materials; 3) Course very well structured, with clear topics, theoretical presentations, and individual and group activities to discuss and apply these concepts; 4) Very approachable and engaged presenter.
  
  
• The lecturer is fantastic and topic is very related to health research
  
  
• I appreciated the fact that both theoretical concepts and their practical applications were presented. That helped me understand the concepts. I enjoyed preparing and delivering the final group presentation; working together has given us a lot of opportunities to network.
  

Big Data in Public Health, May 2023

• This was an extremely enjoyable class. The content and lecturers were excellent, as were the students. I thoroughly loved it.

• The interesting ideas presented by the professors (own) experiences. I enjoyed getting to know in more detail their projects, ideas and opportunities to use big data in different areas.

• Excellent lecturers and coordination. Excellent content. I really enjoyed the course 100%.

Migration Health, June 2023

• I appreciated the integrative approach of some of the lectures that looked at “non health”
  topics like peace and considered the human rights aspects of migrants and health.
  
  
• The expertise of the lecturers was wonderful, and there was excellent pre-reading material. I
  was glad to attend in-person even though there was an option for online; I think the dynamic
  in the room was more engaged
  
  
• 1. There was a lot of information that helped me have a good knowledge and develop perspective of migration health. 
  2. Experiences were given for different regions of the world.
  3. Workers in the field were invited to give real life experiences. For example the UNHCR.

Writing and Publishing a Scientific Paper, June 2023

• I liked the good structure of the course. Additionally, the assignments in class were really useful in understanding better the content of each session.
  Also, the perfect season and the location was amazing. I strongly recommend the course.
  
  
• The structured approach and that after every small theme (methods, results, etc.) there was time to practice with the proposed method. So the theory was still fresh. And that there were a lot of practical tips, which you can look up several times later, during the writing process. With every new paper again and again.
  
  
• Practical sessions: direct practical application, feedback of other students on the assignments.
  Structure of the course: balance between practical sessions and lectures, meeting other PhD students, social event :)

Life Course Epidemiology and Public Health, June 2023

• Good balance between the topics (epi theory and epi modelling), good balance between practicals and theory, different lecturers providing expertise and insights.
  
  
• Group work, networking, exercises during lectures. Very knowledgeable lecturer. 
  
  
• The overall scope of the course was very thoughtful to cover many aspects in a short timeframe.
  
  
• Creating the DAGS and using DAGs to determine which potential confounders to include in the model.

Systematic Reviews and Evidence Synthesis, June 2023

• The topic was very relevant for my PhD, I learned a lot and enjoyed using COVIDENCE.
  
• The practicals, especially learning how to use Covidence and running the meta-analysis in R/Stata. The course was well organized, with all the course material available on moodle.
  
• Very useful course that I would definitely recommend to keep in the SSPH+ PhD program for upcoming years.

Introduction into Multilevel Modelling of Clustered Data, July 2023

• The ratio of lecture and exercises was good such that one can directly apply the models after this course.
  
• The repetition of fixed, random intercept and random slope concepts. There is no such thing as over repetition of this concept. It is a concept that gets clearer and clearer the more you repeat explaining. And I appreciate this a lot.
  
• 1.Practical and in-depth approach.
  2. Linkage and connections/contrast between different methods for analyzing clustered data.
  3. Practical aspect was good. It allowed hands on application of the concepts

Missing Data in Observational Epidemiologic Studies Including Non-detects, September 2023

• Missing data was clearly explained and we went through the practicals in detail to gain fuller understanding of theory and practice applied and of hands on because we got to go through the R code.
• Moving from theory to practical use. I really benefited from the extensive theory discussions & why addressing missing data is important. I liked having time to work individually on an exercise, but then working through them as a class together.
• I liked that the lecturers always supported theoretical concepts with real-life examples.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Healthcare, September 2023

• The combination of theory, practice and discussion/ application for the same topics was helpful. Student presenters/ PhD students did an exceptional job in the practical sessions, theory sessions and reading discussions. 
• I best liked the lab sessions with Python. It was a nice way to start getting to know the methods and now I can go and look for more detailed methodological courses on the methods that lend themselves best for application in my field.
• I really enjoyed the layout of the course with the mix of practical and theory sessions. I also enjoyed the session on interpreting articles on machine learning.

Causal inference for population health sciences, September 2023

• In my opinion, the course "Causal Inference for Population Health Sciences" was one of the best PhD courses - or even the best - I have attended so far. Thank you very much.
• I LOVED this course. The teachers both made me think so hard about the fundamental principles behind my work, which is a good thing! Materials were presented clearly and at what I thought was a really great pace. I could definitely see the materials building on each other, and really appreciated how we started simple and conceptual and built up to very complex (but understandable) methods.
  I've definitely come away feeling that I could start performing causal inference. And I'm now really curious to learn more.
• The atmosphere in the course, how the teachers engaged with the students, the course materials were really excellent, the suggested readings, the practical exercises in groups were great too.

Epidemiological concepts, principals, and methods: A practice-oriented introduction, October 2023

• Getting to know other people from different areas, learning the basics in epic studies, the atmosphere, some of the exercises, the summary every morning & key messages, the presenters and that it was a mix of different speakers.
• The lectures were clear and well designed. The content was relevant and interesting. The engagement of the teachers was good and they tried to motivate, engage and help students.
• Good teaching and knowledge of the teachers. Good summative slides, overviews, introduction of new methods.

Epidemiological data analysis strategy, October 2023

• I really liked the lectures! All lecturers gave high quality and inspiring lectures. There was an excellent information content and density. I would recommend all starting PhD students to take this course.
• Lecturers professional skills, teaching skills and attitudes. The content of the lectures, especially on epi and data analysis strategy. The way statistics was addressed and explained: very clear, but still detailed.
• Many different techniques covered in the course. Hands-on application of the techniques to create analysis plans for real projects.

Writing better, faster scientific papers in English: A structured method for non-native English speakers (Advanced module), October 2023

• It is the best course I have ever taken on writing. Thanks to Kali's tools, tricks and tips, I am no longer "afraid" to write nor procrastinate. I wish I had attended this course earlier in my career, instead of having to do 10 articles as first author without really enjoying it. Kali created a very dynamic and engaging environment, despite being online. Furthermore, she adapted to each individual needs in terms of previous experience and status of the article.
• It is an amazing course! I have written about 10 articles in the past as first author and this course has given me another perspective: before I would always procrastinate and "fear" the writing process whereas with the tools that Kali has given us, I actually enjoyed writing the article during the course. I strongly believe that this course is an asset for any writer or scientist publishing research.
  I wish I had attended such a course earlier in my career to enjoy more my writing, suffer less and be more productive! Even if the course was online, Kali did a wonderful job in keeping the class active, engaged and interested in the course. In addition, having daily assignments helped a lot! Furthermore, I was amazed on how Kali really drove us all throughout our writing journey no matter in which point we were, so we all got feedback and could improve our papers.
• The teacher offered individual meetings to discuss questions, give advise and feedback to submitted work. She answered every question and incorporated additional topics in her lectures when necessary. Topics were covered in an understandable way with examples. For me, the most interesting topic that will stick with me is the differences between German and English writing. This was the first time, I understood the differences and the concept of English writing.

Introduction to Health Economics, November 2023

• The course was really very interesting. All the lecturers were very well prepared and were really good in stimulating our critical thinking. The group engaged in interesting discussions and the topics covered were very very interesting! The course was very well organised (preparatory work, pre-assigned groups (which was great), timetable, breaks, opportunity to network during dinner, lectures, slides etc..). The course was perfect! Thank you!
• The course atmosphere and the fact that we got so many good inputs and info from so many great researchers in such a short time.
• I really like the fact that the course organizers tried to bring in various Swiss researchers with various topic of interest. This way, you can show what are the concrete applications of health economics.

Qualitative Health Research : BASIC module, December 2023

• The group exercises throughout the course, the lecture on the use of theories and qualitative data analysis. In general, the lectures were of excellent quality with very passionate teachers.
• Very good lecturers with a lot of experience and who were very open to our questions and insecurities. Good group, interesting discussions during assignment and breaks.
• It was well organized, with useful examples, and very practical on what/how we should do. The group exercises were great to apply and discuss about the questions.

Qualitative Health Research : ADVANCED module, December 2023

• Highly engaged and knowledgable teachers, atmosphere in class where many students have already participated in qualitative research and shared their experiences with others.
• Thank you very much. I very much liked the structure and the content of the course. The exercise with the interviews are very useful, the lecturers were wonderful! Lectures and materials were great! Overall, basic course and advanced courses are well-handled.
• Practical inputs from faculty, working ourselves on the techniques and discussing difficulties with colleagues and faculty.

Course testimonials 2022

Forced Migration: Sexual and Reproductive Health of Migrant Women, March 2022

• It is hard to point out one thing I found best, because the whole course went beyond my expectations. Not only was I constantly engaged, I was also deeply moved by the research presented by the various talks. This course must be repeated.
  
  
• The broad variety of perspectives, interdisciplinary experts that really made a great holistic understanding of the topic. The lecturers were very understanding and did a great job in making a pleasant atmosphere were I never felt shy to askquestions and they took their time to explain everyone’s questions. I also liked that they gave their personal opinions and evaluations on actual political questions and evolvements. I also loved to meet students from other disciples and associations in the breaks and chat since it has been.
  
  
• Everything was so well organized and the atmosphere was so kind, accepting and still so professional. It was Eye Opening and I will strongly recommend it to everyone, as I believe it affects all health professions. The opportunity hear about different research projects and the relation to the situation in Switzerland just made it a well round course.

Understanding social inequalities and social problems in health!,  April 2022

• This course exceeded my expectations. I liked the idea to link what we learnt to our PhD projects.
  
  
• I liked looking at inequalities through the different sociological and economic lenses, this was something new for me. The course was structured well- I liked that the lecturers explained the 3 theories in class instead of expecting the students to be fully versed in the subject matter.

• The group work teachers gave a really good summary of each author and helped to understand the different concepts.

Big Data in Public Health, May 2022

• The course was structured well such that it allowed for interactions, networking and general discussions. The lecturers are experts in the field and their ability to help you with your side projects was really good.
  
  
• I like the selection of lecturers. It was diverse. Also like the level of interaction in the class and the flexibility of the lecturers.

• The ethics workshop and the lecture on integrity/reproducibility etc. in particular were very engaging - I'd recommend any researcher in the medical sciences to attend them!

Life Course Epidemiology and Public Health, June 2022

• The teachers were experts. They were talking about the real experience in the field. Also different background.
  
  
• I liked the presentations by different professors.

• A nice overview of the life course approach.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Healthcare,  Aug/ Sep 2022

• I thought the topic of the course was interesting, and the self-guided exercises helped with understanding. The real-life examples were also good, as well as discussions of ethical implications.

• The content was really new and feltlike I really came out of this course with a lot of new knowledge. I enjoyed going over the evaluation as it helped reflect on the concepts. Since it was a lot of new information, it was challenging to digest everything within a short timeframe, and the recap and review of the evaluation helped to reinforce material that may not have sunk in yet. The guided exercises and lecture were really helpful.

• Excellent overview of the different ML, AI and DL approaches in healthcare, that was general enough, but also went into sufficient detail. Enjoyed the practical exercises using python.

Foundations of Public Health Sciences, Sept / Oct 2022

• Great courses on health promotion and examples.

• Great expertise and teaching approach.

• I really liked all examples.

Introduction to the Statistical Software R, September 2022

• The combination of lectures and exercises, the flexibility and the humor of the teacher, that I got an understanding of a quite complex topic, that we got the scripts for the exercices, the workshop was super helpful.

• The active participatory aspect was excellent. The lecturer created a very pleasant environment for active participation. The practical and hands on approach was great.
  
  
• The course is well structured and everything was explained in a clear and understandable way. Very helpful for first year PhD students.

Missing data in observational epidemiologic studies including non-detects, September 2022

• I liked the exercises that followed the explanation/ lecture that help us to understand the lecture better. Also, it was also nice to know R code before hand which made understanding coding with R easier.
  
  
• The first part of the course was very well done. Practicals were helpful. The slides and the materials provided were very detailed.

• I was interested to learn a method in handling the missing data. It was nice that the lecturer helped us with the R codes and conducted R sessions simultaneously with the lecturer, which made it much better to understand the example and exercises.

Introduction to Health Economics, October / November 2022

• The lessons were really well done and very interesting. . The welcome, the place, the atmosphere. A very good week! A big thank you for the meals all together :)
  
  
• The course is very well organized. I appreciate the fact that all lecturers are from different universities and are expert in their fields of research. This course did not bring so much mathematic formulas so it is easy to follow for newcomers to the world of health economic.
  
  
• I also like that the course organizer take us for lunch everyday and the group dinner was very fun and interesting, it gave us opportunity to socialize with other students.

• The lecturers, on the whole, were excellent. They explained key concepts of health economics very well without overcomplicating the subjects. The examples given were relevant to the students in the class and it was also great to get a chance to ask them questions about their recent papers. The frontier topics taught were really great too (especially disability economics and ageing) as we got to explore some concepts that are under-discussed.

Qualitative Health Research: BASIC module: Defining and developing qualitative research in public health,  November 2022

• As an epidemiologist with a quantitative background i really enjoyed learning about a new topic (qualitative analysis). The lecturers were good, the material was displayed well and the content was relatable. I enjoyed it a lot and signed up for the advanced module. thank you!
  
  
• The lecturers were really good,approachable, flexible.

• The group works were really interesting and helpful.

Qualitative Health Research : ADVANCED module: Appraising qualitative health research, November 2022

• I liked the selection of the topics and the groupworks.
  
  
• I liked the guidance and also help during the breaks and after the course. I could address all my questions and therefore improve a lot in my knowledge also about evaluation a qualitative research paper.
  
  
• The practical aspect of thecourse enriched my knowledge of qualitative methods.

Public Health Nutrition, November 2022

• I really liked that the course was very interactive and practical
  
  
• I liked the practical approach (having exercises instead of a lot of theory) and working on a case study to apply what we learnt.
  
  
• Lecturers were extremely helpful and approachable. I enjoyed the interactive and practical aspects of the course.

GIS for Public Health, November 2022

• I liked the practical approach (having exercises instead of a lot of theory) and working on a case study to apply what we learnt.
  
  
• Lecturers were extremely helpful and approachable. I enjoyed the interactive and practical aspects of the course.
  
  
• The possiblity to work with own PhD data during the case study.

Public health surveillance and population health monitoring, December 2022

• The lectures by those working in health authorities in Switzerland were especially great to give students a taste of the reality of designing public health policy interventions given limited data. The exercise of coming up with a surveillance system for a specific health issue was also helpful to let students think through the challenges of designing a surveillance system. The course organizers also placed helpful emphasis on thinking of different audiences for specific surveillance data presentations. Overall, the course was really insightful in shedding light on the realities of surveillance data collection and use in Switzerland.
  
  
• The topic was very interesting and the presenters were very well prepared. The courseoffered several occasions for networking.
  
  
• Enjoyed the breadth of lecturers. As I am not as familiar with the Swiss public healthsystem, including examples and an explanation of the system was welcomed. I alsoenjoyed a majority of the group exercises.

Course testimonials 2021

Introduction into multilevel modellingof clustered data, June/  July 2021

• The is very skilled in explaining, putting things in simpler terms. It was very helpful how he explained which analysis makes sense in what situations (or did not make any sense).
  
  
• I liked the examples and the fact that during the practicals we worked with real data sets. Its very good that for every slide the teacher went to stata and could create and output for explanation. I came with some previous knowledge in this kind of models, but the teacher
  was able to fill my knowledge gaps and give very interesting suggestions based on his experience!
• Repetition of concepts with examples and practicals. Thinking about and presentation of own research.

Migration Health, December 2021

• The course brought together an incredible panel of professionals offering their great expertise and experience in a highly engaging way. The course was well-structured, engaging and highly informative. The discussed matter spanned a very broad set of topics related to migration and health, offering compact insights into every single aspect without becoming overwhelming. Overall, it was an extremely valuable and enjoyable experience and I learnt a lot.
  
  
• Different perspectives and multifaceted approach on migrants health and tackling upcoming challenges. Countering narratives on migration and how people with migrant background are perceived.
  
  
• The diverse group of lecturers/presenters who come from different backgrounds and working environments.

2hour online courses from postdocs for IGC students

• I like the format, very informative.
  
  
• I appreciate the short courses. Enjoyed it!
  
  
• Format is good and useful for gaining initial knowledge. Having several of these units would allow us engage more on the topic
  
  
• I think the time is adequate if we consider the course as an introduction to a topic. The activities within the class help make it more engaging.
  
  
• I very much appreciated the practical aspects of the training, important concepts were reminded as we learned.
  
  
• I think these short courses online are very helpful. The topic was very well presented and it made it possible to get to know the topic and in case we want to dive deeper we can invest time on our owns to be more familiarised with help of the resources that are going to be provided by the lecturers.