Epiville--Epidemiology Training Environment
Epiville is a learning tool developed specifically for Principles of Epidemiology, the core course in this discipline at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Epiville is a set of interactive web-based exercises created by faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and produced by the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The primary goal of Epiville is to provide an enhanced web-based learning environment so that students can most efficiently...
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Epiville is a learning tool developed specifically for Principles of Epidemiology, the core course in this discipline at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Epiville is a set of interactive web-based exercises created by faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and produced by the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The primary goal of Epiville is to provide an enhanced web-based learning environment so that students can most efficiently master the main principles of the course. Separate modules serve as weekly homework assignments. In these exercises, students assume the role of an intern at the Department of Health in the fictional city of Epiville where they investigate a series of emerging public health problems.
The tools employed in Epiville-- instantaneous answers to multiple-choice questions, use of interactive maps and visuals, and open-ended questions for discussion in face-to-face seminar meetings-- are intended to improve learner's capacity to collect and analyze epidemiologic data and, ultimately, to carry out independent work in the field.
The project currently consists of ten modules. The first module introduces learners to epidemiological thinking and evaluation of cause and effect. The following two modules on infectious disease epidemiology focus on an investigation of an epidemic of SARS. The next four exercises demonstrate how various other study designs can be used to search for the cause of an outbreak of a mysterious new disease, Susser Syndrome. Exercises on bias and confounding show how these threats to the validity of epidemologic research were tackled in a real-life study carried out by a member our faculty. The final module introduces the concepts of screening and prevention.
Material Type:
Case Study
Technical Format:
HTML/Text
Date Added to MERLOT:
June 19, 2007
Date Modified in MERLOT:
January 17, 2014
Authors:
Ian Lapp
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Lydia Zablotska
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Columbia University
Submitter:
Daniel
Herman
Keywords:
Bias (epidemiology),
Confounding factors (epidemiology),
Epidemiology,
Reproducibility of results-reliability & validity (epidemiology),
SARS,
Ecological Study
Quality
-
Peer Reviews:
- User Rating (not rated)
- Comments (none)
- Learning Exercises (none)
- Personal Collections (11)
- Accessibility Info (none)
About
Primary Audience:
Graduate School,
College General Ed,
Professional
Mobile Compatibility:
Not specified at this time
Technical Requirements:
* RealPlayer
* Macromedia Flash Plug-in
* Adobe® Acrobat Reader®
For PC
* Windows 95 or later.
* 64 MB of RAM (128 recommended).
* Browser: Firefox 1.x, Netscape 8, or Internet Explorer 6.
For Macintosh
* MAC OS 8.6 or higher.
* 64 MB of RAM (128 recommended).
* Browser: Safari. Firefox 1.x, Netscape 8, or Internet Explorer 5.
Language:
English
Cost Involved:
no
Source Code Available:
no
Accessiblity Information Available:
unsure
Copyright:
yes
Creative Commons:
unsure