Veterinary Preventive Medicine (VPM) Graduate Certificate
“Roadmap” of Courses
Starting Fall term:
Semester
Course (select on e option each semester)
Fall, Year 1
VDPAM 527 Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies
(offered odd years)
OR
VDPAM 529 Epidemiological Methods in Population Research (offered even years)
Spring, Year 2
STAT 587
Statistical Methods for Research Workers (Online w/Dr. Wang)
Fall, Year 2
VDPAM 527 Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies
(offered odd years)
OR
VDPAM 529 Epidemiological Methods in Population Research (offered even years)
Spring, Year 3
VDPAM 528
Principles of Epidemiology and Population Health
Fall, Year 3*
VDPAM 562
VDPAM 650
VDPAM 654
VDPAM 567X
Elective credit course: ISU Graduate-level course including:
Applied Diagnostic Technologies (alt Fall, Even)
Swine Diagnostic Medicine
Comp. Antim. Clinical Pharmacology (Alt F, Odd)
Design, Impl. and Analysis of Field Studies (Alt F, Odd)
* Students may choose to skip this semester and enroll into a Spring course in Year 3 (see next
table)
Starting Spring term:
Semester
Course (select on e option each semester)
Spring, Year 1
STAT 587
Statistical Methods for Research Workers (Online w/Dr. Wang)
Fall, Year 1
VDPAM 527 Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies
(offered odd years)
OR
VDPAM 529 Epidemiological Methods in Population Research (offered even years)
Spring, Year 2
VDPAM 528
Principles of Epidemiology and Population Health
Fall, Year 2
VDPAM 527 Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies
(offered odd years)
OR
VDPAM 529 Epidemiological Methods in Population Research (offered even years)
Spring, Year
3*
VDPAM 560
VDPAM 564
STAT 451XW
Elective credit course: ISU Graduate-level course including:
Ecology of Infectious Diseases (offered odd years)
Animal Welfare Science and Research (Alt Spring, even)
Applied Time Series
* Students may choose to skip this semester and enroll into a Fall course in Year 3 (see previous table)
How to Register for Classes:
Taken from the Graduate College Handbook:
2.1 - Registration
All students who attend classes at ISU must register and pay assessed tuition and fees. The ISU
Office of the Registrar’s website at http://www.registrar.iastate.edu/ is the official source of
information about registration for all students at ISU. Specific dates for registration are listed:
• on the Registrar’s Web page,
• on the University Calendar,
• in the Iowa State Daily, and
• on many department bulletin boards.
Registration for summer session should be completed during the spring at the same time as
registration for fall semester. All students are encouraged to register for courses on the Web
through AccessPlus. Detailed instructions are provided at https://catalog.iastate.edu/registration/
2.1.10 Reentry Registration
Reentering graduate students with active status do not need to complete a reentry application, but
they should contact their major professor(s) to select courses and to obtain registration
information. Students with inactive status must undergo a reinstatement process. Students enter
inactive status when they have not been registered for four consecutive terms excluding summer.
VPM Certificate Core Courses: choose from a total 28 course credits:
STAT 587: Statistical Methods for Research Workers
Cr. 4. F.S.SS. Prereq: An applied statistics course at the undergraduate level, such as STAT 101,
104, 105, 201, or 226. Students without an equivalent course should contact the department.
A first course in statistics for graduate students from the applied sciences. Principles of data
analysis and scientific inference, including estimation, hypothesis testing, and the construction of
interval estimates. Statistical concepts and models, including group comparison, blocking, and
linear regression. Different sections are designed for students in various disciplines, and
additional methods covered may depend on the target audience. Topics covered may include
basic experimental designs and analysis of variance for those designs, analysis of categorical
data, logistic and log-linear regression, likelihood-based inference, and the use of simulation.
Equivalent to STAT 401 in previous catalogs. May not be used for graduate credit in the
Statistics MS and PhD degree programs. Credit in STAT 401 or STAT 587, but not both, may be
applied toward graduation.
VDPAM 527: Applied Statistical Methods in Population Studies
Cr. 3. Alt. F., offered odd-numbered years. Prereq: STAT 587
ANOVA, Linear Regression, Model Selection, Mixed Models, ANCOVA, Repeated
Measurement Analysis, MANOVA, Nonparametric Methods, Diagnostic Test Evaluation, ROC
Curve Analysis, Generalized Linear Models, Logistic Regression, Survival Analysis, Cox
Proportional Hazards Regression, Count Data Analyses. This course is available on campus and
by distance.
VDPAM 528: Principles of Epidemiology and Population Health
(Dual-listed with VDPAM 428). (Cross-listed with V MPM). Cr. 3. S.
Epidemiology of disease in populations. Disease causality, observational study design and
approaches to epidemiologic investigations. This course is available on campus and by distance.
VDPAM 529: Epidemiological Methods in Population Research
Cr. 3. Alt. F., offered even-numbered years. Prereq: STAT 587, VDPAM 528
Designing, conducting, analyzing and interpreting outcomes from field-based studies, including
cross-sectional, case-control, cohort, and clinical trials with categorical outcomes. This course is
available on campus and by distance.
VDPAM 560X. Ecology of Infectious Diseases.
Cr. 3. Alt. Spring., offered odd-numbered years.
Topics of applied ecology of infectious diseases. Specific objectives include: a) understanding
dynamics of pathogen transmission within and between population; b) how to reduce risk of
pathogen introduction in populations; c) how to early detect pathogens and classify herds
according to disease status; d) how to quantify pathogen transmission and impact in animal
populations; e) applying and measure the effect of interventions to manipulate disease
transmission dynamics within and between populations. Develop skills to prevent, detect and/or
significantly control/eliminate animal health issues from animal populations. Learn how to
quantify health issues and estimate the value of interventions to influence and mitigate health
problems.
VDPAM 562X. Applied Diagnostic Technologies and Medicine for Infectious Disease.
Cr. 3. Prereq: Enrolled in a graduate program. Introductory epidemiology and/or infectious
disease course encouraged. Veterinary medicine background beneficial.
Veterinary diagnostics and diagnostic medicine for infectious diseases in animal populations,
mostly livestock, and clinical applications. Specific objectives include: understanding diagnostic
process; mechanics of laboratory diagnostic methods; test development and validation;
optimizing diagnostic outcomes; and applying diagnostic data to disease investigation and/or
intervention. Additionally, students are expected to present a diagnostic relevant subject and
participate in case review and discussion. On-line and can be asynchronous from time to time.
VDPAM 564X. Animal Welfare Science and Research .
Cr. 3. S.
Animal welfare is increasingly a key component of societal decisions about animal use,
sustainable development and human-animal relationships. Understanding animal welfare as a
scientific discipline, with primary focus on veterinary, biomedical and animal science
disciplines. Explore fundamental and applied approaches to animal welfare science, including
experimental design, data analysis and interpretation of results. Topics selected will reflect
student interests, and may include animal welfare assessment and assurance, animal cognition,
pain assessment and mitigation, and animal models used in biomedical research.
VDPAM 567X. Design, Implementation and Analysis of Field Studies in Food Animals.
Cr. 3. Prereq: STAT 587 or equivalent; VDPAM 527 or VDPAM 529 or equivalent.
Design of field trials to test hypotheses related to biological outcomes in food animal production.
Topics include field trial designs and how-to implement these trials under field/commercial
conditions; and how to calculate sample size given different type of outcomes and covers the
proper statistical analyses, interpretation, and communication of the results. Invited speakers will
share how they use field trials in their daily practice. Case studies.
STAT 451 XW Applied Time Series
Cr. 3. Methods for analyzing data collected over time; review of multiple regression analysis.
Elementary forecasting methods: moving averages and exponential smoothing. Autoregressive-
moving average (Box-Jenkins) models: identification, estimation, diagnostic checking, and
forecasting. Transfer function models and intervention analysis. Introduction to multivariate time
series methods.
VPM Certificate Elective Credits:
These can be any approved Iowa State University graduate level or dual listed course (List of
courses found at https://catalog.iastate.edu/azcourses/) including, but not limited to, any
remaining core courses. With the permission of the Director of Certificate Education, students
may also take graduate level courses at another approved institution to fulfill the requirements of
the certificate. Examples of online courses related to the VPM Certificate include:
AN S 537A: Topics in Animal Behavior, Welfare: Animal Behavior (online)
Cr. 3. Alt. S., offered odd-numbered years.
Prereq: permission of instructor; M.S. or Ph.D. student
Each semester, the students’ focus is on different topics related to animal behavior, animal
welfare and contemporary issues related to animal behavior and welfare. Each topic is separate
and distinct, and students may enroll in multiple topics. This is an on-line course only. Each
topic may be taken only one time for credit.
BCB 546: Computational Skills for Biological Data (online)
(Cross-listed with EEOB). Cr. 3. F.
Prereq: Graduate student status or permission of the instructor
Computational skills necessary for biologists working with big data sets. UNIX commands,
scripting in R and Python, version control using Git and GitHub, and use of high performance
computing clusters. Combination of lectures and computational exercises.
VPM Graduate Certificate Program Contacts:
Dr. Daniel Linhares, DOGE
515-294-9358
Megan Jedlicka, VDPAM Student Services Specialist
515-294-1761
ISU Graduate College
515-294-4531
Congratulations, You’ve finished your VPM Graduate Certificate! Now what??
After completion of your VPM certificate here are some options that may interest you.
• Continue with our VDPAM Veterinary Preventive Medicine MSc (either creative component or
thesis option) Degree
• Continue to Veterinary Medicine DVM program
