Professor: Allen Course format: Lecture w/lab Number of respondents: 20 Total Enrollment: 23 Class Composition: Froshs: 0 Sophs: 10 Jrs: 9 Srs: 4 Concs: 17 Non-Concs: 3 Don't Know: 0

Instructor Average: 2.02 Course Average: 2.02

“Social Science Research In Health Care” intends to teach students the basics of research design and survey methods with an emphasis on health care survey research. Basic analytic skills and tools for implementing these skills are taught. Introductory statistics is a prerequisite, but many students didn’t feel that having this previous knowledge was necessarily crucial to being able to handle the course.

The biggest complaint against Professor Allen was here disorganization. Students felt that the use of Power Point or overheads would have helped. It was also felt that she could have focused more on how to interpret and analyze, rather than just how to set-up a study. The good news is the positive comments for this professor, far outweigh the negative. Enthusiastic, friendly, amiable, clear, vastly knowledgeable about the material, passionate, responsive, clearly an effective researcher, and great lecturer were all also assessments of her performance.

The course was structured around four labs, two exams, and one final paper. Most people found the work to be easy and reported spending one to three hours a week on work outside of the class. The course load was less intensive than they thought it would be. No one really liked the textbook because it was “not useful,” but many respondents had positive things to say about the course packet material.

The subject matter isn’t terribly interesting, but if you like research and/or health care issues you might enjoy this class. If this class isn’t required for your concentration however, it’s advised that you skip it.

View BC/0132 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.