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Back to Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases by The Pennsylvania State University

4.8
stars
1,643 ratings

About the Course

Not so long ago, it was almost guaranteed that you would die of an infectious disease. In fact, had you been born just 150 years ago, your
chances of dying of an infectious disease before you've reached the tender age of 5 would have been extremely high. Since then, science has
come a long way in understanding infectious diseases - what they are, how they spread, and how they can be prevented. But diseases like
HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, or the flu are still major killers worldwide, and novel emerging diseases are a constant threat to public health.
In addition, the bugs are evolving. Antibiotics, our most potent weapon against bacterial infections, are losing their power bec...
...

Top reviews

SN

Apr 11, 2016

great course and its intensive learning . One might think its just another course . However, one needs to follow all the lectures and notes closely to be able to pass all their assignments .

DR

Jan 24, 2022

Considero que es un excelente curso para introducirse al área de la epidemiología, ya sea para profesionales del área de la salud o personas que quieran tener un conocimiento general del tema.

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326 - 350 of 403 Reviews for Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases

By FATIMAH A S A F A S A

Oct 21, 2024

ممتازه جدا

By roxana g g

May 26, 2023

buen curso

By deuzuita b d m

Mar 6, 2016

it is good

By Amit P ( O

Feb 26, 2025

Very Good

By Zia U R

Aug 5, 2024

Excellent

By Peter O

Apr 12, 2022

i love it

By Sara K

Apr 28, 2017

Loved it!

By Lucas F

Feb 3, 2016

very well

By 李晓雨

Aug 31, 2015

very good

By hossam g

Aug 30, 2015

excellent

By Ricardo G R

Aug 14, 2015

Amazing!

By eleonor

Jun 10, 2016

great!

By Henok M

Jan 25, 2023

great

By 邵红霞

Nov 21, 2017

great

By Alfred L J

Jul 19, 2023

good

By ABHRAJIT D

Sep 19, 2020

good

By Mona A A

Jun 3, 2020

GOOD

By kiatnern

Apr 21, 2016

Nice

By Igu C

Oct 8, 2022

By Josephine P

Oct 26, 2016

G

By Kuong S

Oct 7, 2015

R

By Alejandro P

Aug 17, 2015

I liked the course, with its many different speakers and approaches.

The one thing I missed the most was seeing the models in action. Even if the course isn't aimed at scientists or programmers, there are free online simulations where one can adjust model constants to see the effects interactively without any knowledge required.

See NetLogo at http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/, for which there are forest fire, disease spread in networks, cellular automatas and many other interactive simulations. Insight providing questions may involve finding the value of a parameter such as the epidemic can't spread, for instance.

For more formula oriented optional exercises, I would recommend something similar to Differential Equations in Action from Udacity. It's a relatively easy course implementing the SIR model, physics and ABS. An exercise could be "modify the simulation to consider X% germs get resistant after each antibiotic treatment" (either in NetLogo, or Python).

By Catherine K

Aug 24, 2023

It was a good course. It covered everything I had expected. I didn't care for the "epidemiologist" sections but realize it is integral to the subject. I purchased David Quammen's ebook "Spillover" this year and have read through it. Twice. Fascinating stuff! Much of what was in this book, was included in this course so I had an idea about bats, and spillover, and where HIV came from, and how fast SARS circled the Earth.

I was front line staff, Clinical Lead, for the first CoV-19 outbreak in the first Nunavut Community in Nov. 2020. I was working as Regional Communicable Disease Co-Ordinator when the First Omicron variant arrived in the first Nunavut Community in Dec. 2021. This course helped me link many of the processes which our Dept. of Health was utilizing at the time.

By Dave W

Aug 1, 2020

Ideally I would have liked a bit more maths, having obtained a textbook by the lead academic in this course, but nevertheless I have learned good background information regarding the subject. Having the virus at present allows this information to be put into practice. However I do believe, that the course could be 'tidied' up. The transcripts of the lectures have been used for a few years. They have some errors and it would be more professional if they had been corrected by now. Some of the links are dysfunctional. These should be checked and adjusted accordingly.

By Ed B

Mar 22, 2020

This course was a good introduction to Epidemics. I feel that I have a good grasp of the complex nature of this field of study, and the different factors that can play a part in epidemiological outcomes. I would have liked have been exposed to more of the modelling methods in the field, but SIR model was a good introduction and allowed me to look further into agent and individual based models and I have a good enough understanding of the jargon to follow scientific papers on the modelling of infectious diseases.