This course will introduce students to a range of practical tools that can be applied in the field of global health. The course is structured in three sections covering the process of data capture, basic data cleaning and manipulation, and finally communication of data through visualization and infographics.

(1) REDCap data collection: This part of the course will provide an introduction to Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), a web-based tool for electronic data capture which has been widely used by the international research community. These sessions will cover the process of creating a REDCap project, designing the data collection instrument, data management features in REDCap, enabling online surveys, project testing, real-time data collection, and usage of the REDCap mobile app on mobile phones or tablets. Hands-on training will be provided after the lecture.

(2) Data cleaning and manipulation in R: This part of the course aims to give a general introduction to R, an open-source programming language for data analysis and statistics. These sessions will provide an overview of basic features and fundamental concepts in R. Students will be taught the basics of reading, cleaning, and manipulating datasets. Common types of messy data and ways to tidy them will be discussed. These discussions will include small exercises in writing R code and preparing data for analysis. Messy datasets will be provided for practice purposes.

(3) Data visualization and infographics: This section will cover the principles of and various approaches to data visualization, as well as key steps in building an effective visual. Students will learn ways to translate data into easily digestible information for various audiences using the software they know (e.g. Microsoft PowerPoint). Following taught lectures, students will work through a guided example to develop a visualization for a targeted audience.

All sessions will involve lectures followed by demonstrations, interspersed with exercises to provide students with hands-on experience. There will be a Q&A session at the end of each session. This course will be taught in English.