Graduate Courses

Required courses for both MA and PhD students include content, methodological/statistical courses, and applied skills courses. In addition to the courses listed below, MA students take a content elective; PhD students take two content electives and two methodological/statistical electives. Elective courses can be taken in other departments and programs and can be found in the course schedule: https://sis.rutgers.edu/soc

Content Courses

Introduction to Prevention Science (56:792:501; 3 credits): This course provides an overview of the theory, research, and practice in prevention science, including foundational concepts, translation of theory into intervention, methodology, and implementation.

Current Topics in Prevention Science (56:792:503; 1 credit, taken 3 out of 4 semesters): Students attend weekly presentations and discuss current topics in prevention science. The course involves presentations from Rutgers-Camden graduate students and faculty as well as speakers from local, national, and international, universities, research centers, health care organization, and businesses. 2nd year students are required to present their "seminar in action research" project and PhD students taking their final semester of the course are required to help organize the speaker series.

Social Determinants of Health (56:792:504; 3 credits): This course will examine social, economic, and political factors that contribute to health inequalities and discuss innovative ways to reduce disparities in health to achieve health equity.

Methodological/Statistical Courses

Research Methods (56:830:580; 3 credits)

Research Methods covers designing, conducting, and analyzing research, including issues of ethics, informed consent, control groups, measurement, and data collection. Topics may include basic research designs and statistical analyses, including experimental, quasi-experimental, survey, and archival research, and associated statistical, computer, and graphical techniques, with the goal of preparing students to design and carry out methodologically sound research projects.

Applied Statistical Programming (56:792:502; 1 credit)

This lab-based course aims to provide students some of the foundational concepts and skills needed to program in R, a freely available and commonly used statistical program for data analysis.

Quantitative Methods I (56:824:702; 3 credits)

This course covers probability, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics.

Quantitative Methods II (56:824:709; 3 credits)

This course covers bivariate and multiple regression models, with an emphasis on constructing regression models to test social and economic hypotheses.

Design for Causal Analysis (56:792:602; 3 credits)

The cornerstone of empirical research is causal inference. To draw causal inference from data, we must design research questions and apply research methods appropriate to interpreting results as a cause-effect relationship. In this course, we will introduce the concept of causality and explore research designs that yield results with causal interpretations. This course will explore concepts that require an understanding of statistical inference. However, the course will not require intensive mathematical computation, but will enable students to understand the logic and methods that yield causal interpretations from data.

Introduction to Implementation Science/Program Evaluation (56:792:603; 3 credits)

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of implementation science and program evaluation and its application to community-based research.

Writing for Grants and Publications [PhD students only] (56:792:606; 2 credits)

In this course, students will learn about writing grants and manuscripts for publication. Through in-class exercises, presentations, and assignments, students will have an opportunity to practice and strengthen necessary skills, including effective communication strategies.

Applied Skills Courses

Applied Prevention Science (56:792:604; 3 credits)

In this course, students will learn about building and maintaining  successful relationships with community-based organizations and conducting prevention science-related community-based participatory research. Students will gain firsthand experience by identifying and connecting with a community site where they will spend at least 6 hours each week observing and participating in the site activities. Students will reflect upon their observations and experiences at this site and share these reflections and how they connect with course material at weekly class meetings.

Seminar in Action Research (56:792:605; 3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students a closely supervised, manageable, and firsthand experience with a social change endeavor. In most cases, students will develop and conduct a small-scale intervention project with the site that they worked at in their "applied prevention science" course. Students will learn to apply the concepts and principles of prevention science-related community-based participatory research and to think critically about social issues relevant to their action research experience. Findings from this project will be written up and presented at the "current topics in prevention science" course and presented to the community partner. The final paper and presentation will be the capstone requirement for the master's degree.