School of Information Science Hosts Curriculum Validation Workshop
Addis Ababa University (AAU) School of Information Science in collaboration with Columbia University (America) and University of Nairobi (Kenya) hosted a workshop on Curriculum Validation for Master of Science Degree in Public Health Data Science at Capital Hotel and Spa on July 28, 2022.
Professor Alemayehu Worku, from the Department of Preventive Medicine and member of the technical advisory committee, said that the current Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST) project promotes interdisciplinary approach by engaging School of Information Science, Public Health, Dep’t of Statistics, Mathematics and others.
Prof. Alemayehu stated that the collaboration of these different institutions will make the project one of the leaders in public health data science as data and data science are increasingly reshaping nearly all aspects of ones life, including health though everyone is not benefiting from.
“While advances like big data and artificial intelligence are beginning to revolutionize health care in high-income countries, they often fail to reach lower-income countries with the greatest need. It’s time to intervene to change these situations,” Prof. Alemayehu added.
“There is severe lack of well-trained data scientists and home-grown educational programs to enable context-specific training in lower-income countries in general and in East Africa in particular,” he added.
Prof. Alemayehu urged that the proposed Master of Science in Public Health Data Science will therefore play a key role in producing graduates who have a broad and detailed knowledge of data science and fill the existing human resource gap.
Professor Hagos Ashenafi, Director of Graduate Programs at AAU, in his opening remarks said that the new MSc program in ‘Public Health Data Science’ and ‘Short term Training Programs’ will enhance exploring innovative ideas to using data for decision making and policy briefs.
According to Prof. Hagos, the present validation workshop provides an effective strategy for articulating, aligning and integrating learning outcomes across a sequence of courses and explicitly identifying to students, instructors, administrators and external stakeholders that how student learning outcomes are delivered within a degree program.
Professor Belay Simane, from College of Development Studies, in his introductory address said that the goal of APHREA-DST project is to incentivize new health discoveries and catalyse innovation in health care in public health and health research on the African continent to the application of data sciences.
According to Prof. Belay’s explanation, the needs assessment to be held on the project’s critical activities will help to inform the MSc and short term training formulations, the stakeholder assessment to identify collaboration areas and intake of potential candidates for the training programs, the curriculum development for all training areas such as public health, data sciences, statistics, etc. and other relevant issues that have been accomplished.
AAU School of Information Science professionals, School of Public Health, Department of Statistics, College of Development Studies, Columbia University and University of Nairobi attended the workshop held with the theme of “Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST)”.
Source: Addis Ababa University