Search for most updated materials

 

Instructions to the authors of Supercourse lectures

This course is designed to provide an overview on epidemiology and the Internet for medical and health related students around the world who are relatively novice in the fields. It is very important to have a consistent format for the lectures as part of the Supercourse. Here we outline the structure of the presentations. We can help you develop each aspect of the format should you not have the capabilities at your institution. For example, if it is impossible for you to produce PowerPoint slides, we will do this for some of you. Please contact some of the people below so that we can help you. What is important to us is to have you teach in the course. We can help, or do the technical aspects if needed. Please also refer to the lecture, How to provide a lecture for the Supercourse which describes 'how-to' in the Supercourse presentation format.

  1. Learning Objectives:
  2. Performance Objectives:
  3. Development of the Lecture:
  4. Who to contact with questions:
  5. How to send your lecture to us:
  6. Author acknowledgment and representations:

1. Learning Objectives:

There needs to be stated a set of learning objectives. Thus for the second lecture on the Epidemiologic Transition the learning objectives might be:

  • To understand the concept of the Epidemiologic Transition
  • To view local and national trends in disease in light of the Epidemiologic Transition
  • To understand the importance of Geographic Differences in Disease

2. Performance Objectives:

By the end of the course the student should be able to use the information. Performance objectives are to be stated to indicate what the students can do with the new information e.g.:

  • Examine the trends of disease and predict the future patterns of disease
  • Graph and interpret geographic patterns in disease
  • Understand the importance of monitoring disease

The learning and performance objectives can be sent to us as an ASCII file, and we will put these in your talk.

3. Development of the Lecture:

  • First Slide: Title, readings and who you are. In the first slide the title should provide an overview of the topic to be covered. There should be hypertext links to readings on the web (e.g., text books or other readings) which pertain to the topics of interest. In some topics there may not be any good readings on the web. Your name and picture should be on the slide. If you send us your picture, we will scan it in. We want to have the students see who you are. Ideally, we would want to click onto your name and bring up your own individual home page, which we would help you make.
  • Second Slide: In the second slide we want two to three paragraphs about who you are, how you became involved with this topic, and why you are excited about it. You can see examples of this in lectures which are already on the web.
  • Slide construction:
    • We need to have your slides prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. It can be created in any version of PowerPoint. We will convert it to PowerPoint 97.
    • Slide background: For the slide background, please use as few colors as possible so that its transfer on the Internet will be as fast as possible. Please avoid a white background.
    • Font and its size for a slide: For the text on the slide, please use "Ariel" or "Tahoma," if possible. Please use fonts as large as you can, at least 44 point. See the examples of how slides appear on the web.



For a web presentation, this slide is hard to read even though the font size is 44. It is a good slide for the usual slide presentation, however.

This slide is very easy to read on the web, though it may be poor for the usual slide presentation. Please use as big a font as possible

    • Total lines on the slide should be less than 9.
    • Text font color in a slide: You may select a few colors for the font in slide.
    • Table in a slide: In a table on the slide, use only bold fonts, avoid italics, and select 36 point or bigger for the font size.
    • Graph in a slide: In a graph on the slide, use only bold fonts, avoid italics, and select 26 points or bigger for the font size.
    • Note beside a slide: A note is presented beside the slide. One hundred words or less are preferred. Abbreviations in the slide can be spelled out here.
    • Hyperlinks from within a slide or a note: Please put hyperlinks from within a slide or a note. For older versions of PowerPoint it is not possible to put hyperlinks into the slide or notes. Please refer to the Resource page, especially Epidemiology for the Uninitiated and Statistics at Square One and put a link to a relevant chapter from your lecture. If you use an older version of PowerPoint which does not permit you to add notes or hyperlinks, please provide a text file of the text that accompanies each slide and the URL(s) which should be linked to each slide. When you send the slides to us we can add the notes or hyperlinks into the presentation.
  • The total number of slides should be between 20-30.
  • We will convert your slides from an older version of PowerPoint to the newest, and we will put them onto the Web. To your lecture we will add the peer review form as well as links to other lectures. It will usually take one to two weeks to bring your lecture up onto the web.
  • Your name will be listed in the contributors section as well as for your lecture
  • We will maintain a list server for the people who contributed to the development of the work.

4. Who to contact with questions:

Faina Linkov (fyl1@pitt.edu), (eshubn@gmail.com)

5. How to send your lecture to us:

When you have finished your lecture, please compress the pictures at the presentation (using technology described at http://www.nacubo.org/x5575.xml for example), safe you presentation to make avaialble in PowerPoint 1997 (which have nesessary options for current Supercourse operations) and send your letter with presentation enclosed to Eugene Shubnikov (eugene.shubnikov@gmail.com). In case of any problems, please use general Supercourse address as super1@pitt.edu.

6. Author acknowledgment and representations:

Author Acknowledgment: As a submitting author, you acknowledge that your submission, including slides, will be posted on the Supercourse website and will be freely accessible for use as shareware to be used and shared by others without restriction.

Author representation: By the submission of your lecture and slides to the Supercourse, you represent that you have the right to provide your submission as shareware to be used and shared by others without restriction, including permission from the third parties, as may be required. You also represent that the information contained in your submission is accurate and not libelous.