University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health
Department of Epidemiology
EPID 600, Principles of Epidemiology for Public Health
Welcome Class of Spring '10
Chatty version (succinct version)
Dear EPID600 student -
Welcome to EPID600. We try to make this course inspiring and fun, but it is also a
lot of work and quite complex. This announcement, unfortunately, will expose that
complexity right from the start!
1) SAFETY FIRST - do not open an email attachment from me without a high degree of confidence that I sent it. If you’re not yet a “seasoned” Internet user, please click on “More about EPID160/EPID600” on the public web site (you can also get there through the Syllabus tab in Blackboard) and read about safe email practices. I also invite you to follow my practice of beginning the Subject line of my EPID600 messages with "EPID600". That provides a little protection against spoofed emails that appear to come from me, but mostly it helps me find EPID600 emails among the hundreds in my inbox or caught by my spam filter.
2) WEB SITES - public or private
The Blackboard course web site will become available before the first class.
The public web site (http://www.unc.edu/epid600/ , where you are now) has the course schedule, access to the lecture slides with speaker notes, comments from students who have taken the course in the past, and lots of helpful information about the course and about epidemiology. This site also has the request form for asking to change your recitation day, audit the class, obtain an extension, obtain a recommendation letter, take an incomplete, etc. There is also a convenient shortcut to the Blackboard web site. In general, almost all of the course can be accessed from either site (examinations and student names are only in Blackboard). Start your day at www.unc.edu/epid600/ !
3) COURSEPACK, TEXTBOOK
Information on the coursepack, textbook, etc. are all at www.unc.edu/epid600/#materials
If you got a deal on a coursepack from last year, it will probably be at least 80% the same. There are version dates at the bottom of each lecture slide and the end of each case study that provide some indication of where changes have been made, but it’s still not always easy to find the differences. Note that if you have case study or examination answers from a previous semester you must inform Vic and dispose of them. There will be very limited advantage to you from having the case study answers and considerable disadvantage. If you have any questions about this requirement, please ask me.
4) RECITATION GROUPS - These will be assigned during the second week of the class. An email with your small group and its room will be sent to your email address on the class roll or in the request form. The Tuesday lecture will be followed by recitations at 5:00pm for students who are registered for section 601 and on Wednesday at 4:00pm for students who are registered for section 602.
5) TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY - how can I switch?
We often have students who would like to switch the day of their recitation section.
If you are registered for section 601 you can often make someone happy by offering to switch to Wednesday. Many students find they enjoy the Wednesday recitation more since they’ve had a day to reflect on the lecture.
If you are:
- registered for a Wednesday section but willing to be in a Tuesday section, or vice-versa
- not registered for any section
- not even registered for EPID600 but want to be
Regardless, please come to the first two weeks of classes, since the small groups won't be made up until afterwards.
6) MODULES
The course is made up of modules, each with a lecture and case study. In response to student comments from previous years the current schedule now has more time between the lecture and submission deadlines for its associated case study. Because of that change, the case studies are someout out of sync with the lectures. You can see the structure of a typical module, which may help to clarify this point. This semester I've reformatted the schedule, so it's much less confusing and has convenient links to lecture slides, case studies, and submission forms (see the "Viewing and printing options")!
7) ANXIOUS?
I'm looking forward to our class together. If you're feeling nervous about EPID600, consider this anecdote from the Prairie Home Companion:
Patient: "Doctor, I'm kind of nervous - this is my first operation."
Doctor: "I know what you mean - mine, too."
I look forward to meeting you and hope that you enjoy the course,
Vic Schoenbach
www.unc.edu/~vschoenb/
EPID600 home page
What is epidemiology?
Should I take EPID600 or a different introductory course?
Course objectives
Course content
Schedules
Class times
Grading
Other resources
[EPID160/EPID600 history]
[Vic’s home page]
Updated 1/2,4/2010vs