Short Courses

This course will enable participants to understand and apply the principles of Epidemiology. It is blended (online and face to face) sessions with both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. All participants must join the synchronous sessions and these will be preceded and followed with self-study and assessments. The course is equivalent to the Fundamentals of Epidemiology module in the MSc Clinical Epidemiology.

Objectives/aim: At the end of the course students will understand: how to frame research questions; the principles, strengths and limitations of various study designs; how to make use of measures of disease occurrence, measures of effect and measures of public health impact;  the concepts of random error, bias, confounding and effect modification in epidemiological studies and knowledge of strategies to deal with these challenges; how to determine a causal link between exposure and outcome; and the principles, and evaluation of screening programmes.​  

Prerequisites: The candidate shall hold an MBChB or equivalent degree; or a four-year professional bachelor's degree in a health-related discipline. Mathematics at National Senior Certificate level  

Duration and dates: Full first semester online course (Feb/June), with dedicated live virtual contact time.

The course takes place over six full days of face to face sessions (two blocks of three days each). Each day is made up of  lectures, tutorial activities and practical exercises using statistical software. These are followed up by self-study and assessments in the form of two assignments. A three hour examination constitutes the summative assessment. Stata is the statistical software used for this course. The course is equivalent to the Biostatistics I module in the MSc Clinical Epidemiology

Aim: This course will enable participants to understand and apply the key principles of Biostatistics.

Prerequisites: The candidate shall hold an MBChB or equivalent degree; or a four-year professional bachelor's degree in a health-related discipline, and mathematics at National Senior Certificate (NSC) level​

Duration and dates: Full first semester course (Feb/June)

The course takes place over six full days of face to face sessions (two blocks of three days each). Each day is made up of lectures, tutorial activities and practical exercises using statistical software. These are followed up by self-study and assessments in the form of two assignments. A three hour examination constitutes the summative assessment. Stata is the statistical software used for this course. The course is equivalent to the Biostatistics 2 module in the MSc Clinical Epidemiology.

Aim: This course is a follow on from Biostatistics 1, and aims to enable participants to understand and apply more advanced principles of Biostatistics.

Prerequisites: Applicants should have completed the Biostatistics 1 short course or equivalent. The candidate shall hold an MBChB or equivalent degree; or a four-year professional bachelor's degree in a health-related discipline, and mathematics at National Senior Certificate (NSC) level.

Duration and dates: Full second semester course (July/Oct).

Guidelines are a convenient way of packaging evidence and presenting recommendations to healthcare decision makers and are essential in getting evidence into policy and practice. The course is exclusively online, intensive and provides participants with the needed knowledge and practical skills to navigate the guideline development and evidence ecosystem. Ideal for students, clinicians or policy makers who want to find, appraise, use and develop clinical practice guidelines, including methods for guideline development appropriate for resource limited settings. The course is equivalent to the Clinical Practice Guideline module in the MSc Clinical Epidemiology

Aim: The aim of this module is to enable participants to understand the purpose of CPGs, discuss different CPG approaches (de novo development, adapting CPGs), implementation strategies and monitoring and evaluation of evidence based clinical practice guidelines.

Prerequisites: Foundational training in epidemiology, biostatistics and systematic reviews

Duration and dates: Full first semester online course (Feb/June), with dedicated live virtual contact time.

Knowledge Translation (KT) seeks to bridge the gap between research and decision-making (and the actors within each). As attention to KT in research, policy and practice grows, so does a need for capacity enhancement in KT knowledge, skills and activities amongst evidence producers and evidence users.

The curriculum is designed in a way to dovetail the science and art of KT by drawing on principles of adult learning and capacity strengthening that includes: 1) extraction of intuitive and tacit knowledge 2) autonomous knowledge generation 3) practical sessions 4) peer-support and critique 5) facilitator coaching and feedback 6) constant reflection.

Participants graduate the course with with three completed outputs: a stakeholder matrix, an engagement strategy for their chosen stakeholder and a plan for evaluating the impact of their KT strategy in influencing decision-makers. This foundational course is a prerequisite for the following two offerings.

• Engaging with Decision Makers: Issue Briefs for Policy and Practice
• Engaging with the Media: Principles and practices​ ​

KT short courses are offered by the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and are open to postgraduate students, faculty and other interested participants external to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Short course participants will receive a certificate of attendance and CPD credit if requested.

Duration and dates:  Mar/April

Prerequisites: None

Decision-makers, whether at the household, organizational, community or network level make decisions in complex environments. With the multitude of information that impacts their decisions, its critical for researchers to not only understand the complexities of the decision-making environment but also to appreciate the efforts and strategies that can be employed to contribute to those decisions with evidence.

The aim of this short course is to provide a nuanced understanding of the context and processes that affect decision-making with the ultimate aim to produce an issue brief to influence a chosen decision maker.

KT short courses are offered by the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and are open to postgraduate students, faculty and other interested participants external to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Short course participants will receive a certificate of attendance and CPD credit if requested.

Duration and dates: April/May

Prerequisites: Evidence-Informed Decision making: The Art, Science and Complexity of Knowledge Translation​ ​

The purpose/goal of this course is to provide researchers with a nuanced understanding of how to engage with the media in order to encourage the use of evidence in decision-making.   Participants will learn about how the media operates and the complexity of the media landscape. They will also learn how science news, features and editorials can be produced without compromising the quality of the scientific information. The importance of understanding and navigating how to build relations and engage with the media is a core part of the syllabus.

KT short courses are offered by the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and are open to postgraduate students, faculty and other interested participants external to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Short course participants will receive a certificate of attendance and CPD credit if requested.

Duration and dates: May/June

Prerequisites: Evidence-Informed Decision making: The Art, Science and Complexity of Knowledge Translation

Systematic reviews provide the foundation for evidence-based decision making. The short course will be exclusively online, using a combination of live synchronous webinars, online recordings and self study. All teaching and learning will be facilitated via SunOnline. Online content will be spread over a period of weeks, with students required to engage with content weekly, punctuated with online discussion and webinars. The course is equivalent to the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis module in the MSc Clinical Epidemiology and requires students to successfully complete formative and summative assessments

Aim: To train candidates to understand the methods and applications of conducting a systematic review to answer a clearly defined healthcare question

Prerequisites: Applicants need to have completed introductory courses of epidemiology and biostatistics

Duration and dates: Full second semester course (July/Oct), with dedicated live virtual contact time.

The Introduction to Qualitative Evidence Synthesis short course is an elective module of the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences MSc Clinical Epidemiology and MPhil Health Systems. The module is exclusively online and uses an interdisciplinary global approach to build capacity in the design, conduct, and reporting, of qualitative evidence synthesis. Researchers, clinicians and policy makers in all disciplines will benefit from the skills acquired in this course to understand and explain phenomena related to people experiences, with the best available evidence.

Aim: The aim of this course is to provide students with the epistemological considerations and the fundamental methodological skills required for the design and implementation of a qualitative research synthesis

Prerequisites: Participants should be able to read and understand original, qualitative research papers. Experience in conducting a systematic review and/or primary qualitative research will be helpful but is not a requirement of this module.

Duration and dates: Full first semester online course (Feb/June), with dedicated live virtual contact time. Second semester face to face over 4 days

The Primer is a 8 week online short course aimed at busy clinicians or decision makers to find, appraise, interpret and consider the use of systematic reviews of effects. Coursework is done exclusively online, at your own pace and requires about 2 to 3 hours of effort per week. Participants are encouraged to engage with colleagues and facilitators via forums and live Q&A sessions. The primer in systematic review course is interactive, fun and informative. Whether you are a clinician, policy maker or researcher, if you want to know more about finding, appraising, and using the best available evidence, this course is for you.

Aim: The course aims for participants to find, appraise, interpret and consider the use of systematic reviews of effects. This is not a course on how to do a Systematic Review or meta-analysis.

Prerequisites: None

Duration and dates: 8 weeks (online). Offerings vary, for more info contact Liesel Floor [email protected] 

Primer in Systematic Reviews: Watch video here
Primer in Systematic Reviews: Testimonials: Watch video here