The School of Public Health announced the launch of a fully-online master of science degree in biostatistics in a March 4 press release.
The 20-month program, which opened applications for a cohort to begin next spring, aims to “provide working professionals with a strong foundation in health data science methods and rigorous training in applied skills” and to “train future leaders in the field to meet the growing demands of the healthcare industry.”
The creation of the degree comes on the heels of the school’s successful launch of an online master of public health degree in fall 2022, the flagship fully-online program for SPH.
Program curriculum
Students will complete nine required courses — including a problem-driven capstone project — presented in a variety of multimedia formats, according to the press release.
Course offerings range from essential foundations, such as BHDS 2000: “Probability and Statistical Inference,” to emerging areas of study including the increasing role of big data in healthcare.
While the in-person biostatistics master’s program traditionally serves PhD-track students, the online program focuses on equipping professionals.
Tao Liu, an associate professor of biostatistics and who will oversee the new fully online degree, said that the program emphasizes preparing students for leadership roles on larger projects, rather than working with just one specific problem.
Applicants are required to have a minimum of two years of professional work experience prior to applying, allowing them to build on and share real-world knowledge in their respective sectors throughout their studies.
Liu said that the program's training opportunities are intended to help students “move to another level of leadership in their current work or change their career path to another domain.”
An increase in data science jobs across all sectors has also created a need for individuals with data fluency. “The future of work is happening in the ‘big data’ biostats career trajectory,” said Jennifer Nazareno, associate professor of behavioral and social sciences.
“We thought it would be timely to build something like this,” she added. Nazareno is the associate director of the online MPH program and played a central role in the development of the online biostatistics master’s program.
Program design
The new online program is a collaborative effort between SPH, the School of Professional Studies and the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning’s Digital Learning and Design Online team.
The Sheridan Center’s online program development team builds programs based on four pedagogical principles, Melissa Kane, the senior associate director of the program, wrote in an email to The Herald. These include “(reducing) barriers to student learning, designing learning to be global and professional, enhancing discourse through fostering strong peer-to-peer engagement and instructor-learner relationships and enabling transferable learning through intentional design and strategic use of media and technology.”
In addition to weekly synchronous classes, designers helped instructors create a series of equivalent asynchronous courses that students can view as their schedule permits. These features, which Kane calls “high-impact practices,” are rooted in principles of flexibility, consistency and clarity, she said.
Nazareno stressed the importance of program accessibility, particularly for academically marginalized groups. She said she hopes that the program will share the success of the online MPH program, eliminating barriers to advanced higher education and demystifying graduate school, she added.
“We’ve been able to recruit first-generation students and other underserved populations,” Nazareno said. “We want to attract non-traditional learners, folks that already are in certain careers or have family obligations where moving is not feasible. We want to come to them, we want to find talent everywhere.”
Benicio Beatty is a staff writer and a copy editor. He is studying Public Health on the pre-med track. In his free time, Benicio enjoys playing with his dog Tivoli and constructing time capsules.
