Courses Taught by Jonathan Zelner
EPID592: Introduction to Spatial Epidemiology and GIS for Public Health
- Graduate level
- Both Online MPH and Online MS
- This is a second year course for Online students
- Fall term(s) for online MPH students; Fall term(s) for online MS students.
- 4 credit hour(s) for online MPH students; 4 credit hour(s) for online MS students;
- Instructor(s): Zelner, Jonathan (Online MPH); Zelner, Jonathan (Online MS);
- Offered Every Fall
- Last offered Fall 2021
- Prerequisites: None
- Advisory Prerequisites: None
- Description: In this class, students will be exposed to the conceptual foundations of spatial analysis in public health and will develop familiarity with spatial data manipulation and visualization using GIS software.’
- Learning Objectives: 1. Develop familiarity with the historical and conceptual foundations of modern spatial epidemiology. 2. Learn about the different types of spatial data used in epidemiology and public health. 3. Obtain, load, and visualize spatial datasets using ArcGIS Online.

Department | Program | Degree | Competency | Specific course(s) that allow assessment | Population and Health Sciences | MPH | Compare population health indicators across subpopulations, time, and data sources | PUBHLTH515, BIOSTAT592, EPID590, EPID592, EPID643, BIOSTAT595, BIOSTAT501 |
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EPID594: Key Concepts in Spatial Analysis
- Graduate level
- Both Online MPH and Online MS
- This is a second year course for Online students
- Winter term(s) for online MPH students; Winter term(s) for online MS students.
- 2 credit hour(s) for online MPH students; 2 credit hour(s) for online MS students;
- Instructor(s): Zelner, Jonathan (Online MPH); Zelner, Jonathan (Online MS);
- Last offered Winter 2022
- Prerequisites: EPID592
- Description: In this course, students will gain familiarity with the key issues and statistical and theoretical tools for asking and answering epidemiological questions using spatial data.
- Learning Objectives: 1. Identify challenges to causal inference using spatial data. 2. Evaluate and employ appropriate analytic methods for diverse public health questions. 3. Fit basic regression models to spatial data and evaluate model fit.

EPID684: Theory and applications of spatial epidemiology
- Graduate level
- Residential
- Winter term(s) for residential students;
- 3 credit hour(s) for residential students;
- Instructor(s): Zelner, Jonathan (Residential);
- Offered Every Winter
- Last offered Winter 2022
- Prerequisites: BIOSTAT 501 or BIOSTAT 521
- Advisory Prerequisites: intermediate biostatistics course recommended
- Description: This course provides a survey of spatial problems in epidemiology with a specific focus on public health applications of spatial analysis. Topics covered will include the different types of spatial data, causal inference with spatial data, and specific examples of applications of spatial analysis to epidemiological problems.
- Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the circumstances when spatial analysis is necessary and useful for different types of epidemiological problems and contexts. 2. Understand and describe key issues of causal inference in spatial analysis (e.g. ecological and atomistic fallacies). 3. Become familiar with statistical concepts underlying spatial epidemiological analysis.

PUBHLTH405: Social history of infectious disease
- Undergraduate level
- Residential
- Fall term(s) for residential students;
- 3 credit hour(s) for residential students;
- Instructor(s): Zelner, Jonathan (Residential);
- Not offered 2023-2024
- Prerequisites: None
- Description: We will focus on five specific pathogens that have had an outsize impact on the trajectory of human health and societies: Cholera, Polio, Tuberculosis, Influenza, and HIV.
- Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the concept of infectious disease "natural history" of infection. 2. Understand and enumerate key infectious diseases in human history. 3. Understand the key social and historical mechanisms underlying the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases.
- Syllabus for PUBHLTH405
