Epi trainings
Hi all! I just wanted to poll the group, what epi trainings or professional development have you purchased for your team that have been the most effective and worthwhile? We have some funds in our budget to purchase trainings and I want to use them wisely. The more specific, the better (e.g., if a SAS course, which one and which classroom format). TIA!
1. SAS (unlimited points model that includes getting certified) through SAS (self-paced)
2. ArcGIS trainings through ESRI (virtual classroom)
3. REDCap trainings are conducted by our staff using our REDCap server (virtual classroom)
4. I redeliver Tableau trainings quarterly with post-training assignments. Trainings we're created by a private company using data from our disease surveillance system (both self-paced and virtual classroom)
5. DataCamp licenses for everything else including but not limited to SQL, R, PowerBI (self-paced)
Pros and cons vary depending upon the route
- Have THE company/experts teaching you about their software vs using our data so the skills are more easily/readily applied
- Virtual classroom may have space and logistics issues vs self-paced may have less uptake due to motivation
Personally, I'm bias towards my model of virtual classroom and required post-training assignments. Attrition of assignment completion is an issue, but I think having people work with the software on their own with their data soon after training helps cement the concepts better. I've held 1 on 1 meetings and batched meetings to review assignments with students. I liked the 1 on 1 relationship development but it was very time consuming so I started batching people into small groups of 4-6 (15-18 participants total). They like comparing themselves to and getting ideas from their peer group so will likely continue to batch. I also think group meetings help create group cohesion and build a data viz culture.
I'm happy to show any behind the scenes of these programs. I've attached our most recent Technical Training Newsletter for reference if helpful :)