340.632.79
Excel for Public Health Data: Management, Analysis & Visualization
Location
Internet
Term
Summer Institute
Department
Epidemiology
Credit(s)
2
Academic Year
2026 - 2027
Instruction Method
Online Synchronous (at least one synch session/week)
Start Date
Monday, June 8, 2026
End Date
Friday, June 12, 2026
M, Tu, W, Th, F, 1:30 - 5:00pm
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
No prerequisites for this course.
Enrollment Restriction
This course is not restricted.
Excel isn't just for finance. In public health, it is the "first responder" for tracking outbreaks, managing surveillance data, and monitoring community health.
Learn to turn raw numbers into clean datasets, insightful analyses, and clear charts that support evidence-based decisions at the local health department level.
Build the data-management and visualization skills that agencies expect, but rarely teach… no coding needed.
Want to hit the ground running on day one of your public health job? This course gives you practical tools to work with real-world data from day one.
This course provides hands-on Microsoft Excel training tailored for local public health work. Students will learn practical skills to import, clean, manage, and document datasets (whether from surveillance reports, community health assessments, immunization records, or program evaluation data). Through guided exercises, the student will learn foundational tools (e.g., data validation, filters, pivot tables, basic formulas) and learn how to structure data for analysis while maintaining clarity and quality (e.g., creating data dictionaries, consistent coding, and clean formatting).
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Import and clean raw public datasets (e.g., from surveillance or community assessments), create well-structured spreadsheets, and document data with clear variable names, consistent coding, and data dictionary.
- Use Excel functions (such as filters, conditional formatting, lookup functions, basic formulas) and tools (tables, data validation) to organize, manage, and check data for errors, duplicates, or inconsistencies.
- Generate summary statistics and apply descriptive analytic techniques using built-in Excel functions (e.g., counts, means, sorting, subgroup summaries) to explore and describe public health data.
- Create clear, publications- or report-ready charts, graphs, and simple dashboards (e.g., pivot tables plus charts) to visualize trends, comparisons, and key findings for health data stakeholders.
- Export, document, and present analyzed data and visualizations in a way that supports evidence-based decision making, program evaluation, and reporting in local health department settings.
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 20% In-class Exercises
- 30% Lab Assignments
- 10% Participation
- 40% Final Project