We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Technology

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

How do I Choose the Best Informatics Course?

By Stephanie Torreno
Updated: May 17, 2024
Views: 77,378
Share

Choosing the best informatics course is usually a matter of finding a class that fits your personal career goals and covers the sorts of things you both want to and need to learn for success later on. Informatics is a really broad field, and different courses have different things they focus on or emphasize. Once you have an idea of your “ideal” class, you’ll need to carefully consider the options available to you. Asking about the coursework required and the textbook used is a good place to start; talking to current students and researching the professors can also be useful. Of course, reading the university or institute website will also give you a good sense of whether a particular course will be a good fit for you. It’s important to remember throughout all of this that the quest for what’s “best” is very subjective. What’s best for you may not also be best for your friend or roommate, and vice versa.

Think About Your Career Goals

Perhaps the most important thing you’ll want to do when thinking about informatics courses is to carefully identify what it is you’re trying to learn. This will help you rule out classes that aren’t good fits, and solidifying your goals before you enroll can also help you get more out of the class you do choose. Most courses operate with the same core set of assumptions and operational functions, but the subject matter can drive the focus.

Informatics is also known as the science of information, the engineering of information systems, or the human consequences of technological advances. Students use knowledge and skills from different disciplines, including information systems, computer design, psychology, and sociology, to inform their studies. There are many different courses as a result: students can pursue careers in health informatics, biomedical informatics, or media informatics. If your hope is to work analyzing data sets for a political interest organization, for instance, your best course probably isn’t one that focuses on streamlining health data, though someone wanting to amalgamate insurance claims information or disease contagion rankings might really thrive in this sort of class.

Consider the Coursework

It’s also important to take a close look at the coursework of any class you’re thinking of taking. Most professors and experts recommend that students look for varied coursework. Technical courses that include the broad suite of programming, web development, and database management are often more useful in the long-term than are those that focus on one area to the exclusion of others. Students are also usually wise to take classes in project management, computer design, and information systems. The main goal of any informatics course should be to prepare students to design and develop information management systems and complex systems involving large databases of information, no matter the specifics of that information.

Ideally, the coursework should allow you to analyze national and global information policy and confirm the security and integrity of these systems. Designing applications needed for information storage and access may also be a part of it. Your best informatics course should probably also address knowledge and understanding of human behavior as it applies to developing social networking applications and mobile technologies.

Read the Course Websites

Most college and university websites include information about informatics curriculum and course descriptions, and reading these can give you a good sense of what you could expect were you to enroll. In some cases, these sorts of courses can even be taken online, and in these instances the websites are often very rich with information about what’s included, how students are assessed, and who you can talk to for more information. If you’re considering taking an informatics course online it’s usually a good idea to look for accredited programs that have some sort of affiliation with brick-and-mortar schools or programs.

Talk to Students and Professors

Other than researching course specifics, one of the best ways to get a sense of how a class really operates is to talk to other people who have taken the course or schedule a meeting with the professor who teaches it. Most professors are eager to talk to prospective students about their courses, since this can both build enthusiasm and prevent you from enrolling if you aren’t going to like the material or the format. Some will even let you sit on a few classes to get a feel for how things are taught and discussed. You can then use this information to make a reasoned decision when it comes to how well you think you’d learn and what you’d get out of the course overall.

Share
WiseGeek is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.

Editors' Picks

Discussion Comments
Share
https://www.wisegeek.net/how-do-i-choose-the-best-informatics-course.htm
Copy this link
WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.