Behavioral and Social Aspects of Public Health july 30, 2025
Emir7
SyllabusPHAR699.docx
PHAR/GRAD 699
Instructor: Erik Hefti, PharmD, PhD
This course will be offered in the Executive Format.
Course Description
Course Catalog Information:
Prerequisites: GRAD 695 and permission of instructor
Description: This course allows the student to pursue an area of interest that is within the broad scope of Pharmaceutical Science. A faculty member will supervise this study. This course aims to apply what students learn to their Curricular Practical Training (CPT) or their current/future careers. Assignments, such as discussions, activities, projects, homework, etc., designated by an asterisk are focused on the student’s current/future employment. This requirement allows students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world, professional environments.
Course Objectives:
The primary objective of this course is to help students complete the Experiential Capstone (MS Thesis or Applied Project).
The main deliverable of this course is a well written MS Thesis or Applied Project Report that is of publishable quality .
The starting point is the final version of your proposal from GRAD 695. Peer evaluations will be used throughout the course. Our meetings will consist of discussion of various topics. We will focus on creating a research culture and answering any questions.
In this course:
1. Students apply their theoretical knowledge in practice and carry out their proposed projects
2. Students gain real-world hands-on research experience as they develop and complete their projects
3. Fulfillment of HU Master’s degree
4. Execution of the “proposed project” [the projects are proposed and developed in GRAD695 class] GRAD 699 Harrisburg University of Science & Technology
Students who successfully pass this course:
1. Fulfill their Applied Project graduation requirement 2. Gain extensive theoretical knowledge and practical expertise of their topic 3. Will be ready to apply their work in real-world applications
Course Conduct and Grading Policy:
A few rules will help us to get the most of our investment in GRAD 699:
1. Canvas is going to be our platform for all course activities: No late submission and/or email submission.
Tentative Due Date for Ungraded Draft Thesis Document as specified on Canvas, Tentative Due Date for Thesis Document: December 3, 2025 by 11:59pm EST
2. All activities will be assigned individually unless mentioned in the assignment.
3. Series of benchmarks will be assigned for your project and your work will be evaluated based on your performance. The main deliverable of this course, however, is your final project report. You will also present your project (ppt presentation).
Presentation – Tentative Due Date: Presentation Due on November 15, 2025 EST,
You will provide a PowerPoint presentation of your project and present it to the class.
Grading Policy:
Your grading scheme for this course is straight forward.
|
Class Participation (At professor’s discretion) Attendance*, and Assignment Completions |
20% |
|
Defense Presentation |
10% |
|
Written thesis/project |
70% |
*Attendance is defined as attending scheduled synchronous and asynchronous class sessions for the entire duration of the class. Signing in for a few minutes or leaving mid-way through a class will be counted as an absence. This determination is at the professor’s discretion. The Attendance grade is determined as a proportion of classes attended divided by total scheduled classes. An applied example of this would be the following situations: if there are 15 scheduled classes, and a student attends all 15 classes, they would receive 100% for attendance. If the student had 2 unexcused absences, the classes attended (13) would be divided by total scheduled classes (15) and they would receive an 87% for the attendance portion of the course. Students have two (2) excused absences per semester. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the professor prior to class or within 24hrs after class to discuss the absence. Requests for excused absences after 24 hours of the missed class will not be accepted.
Grading cut-offs is as the followings:
Grade in [90—100] range will grant you A
Grade in [80—89.9] range will grant you B
Grade in [70—79].9 range will grant you C
Grade in [00—69.9] range will grant you F
Note: You will not pass this course without providing and passing your final thesis.
Library and Academic Resources at HU
As a student of HU, you have access to all databases and document which can be found at HU library. For further information about HU library and its resources check
[email protected]
Student Support
1. Website: www.HarrisburgU.edu
2. The Student Success Center located at 326 Market Street. Here you will find many student services:
Support Portals - Harrisburg University
3. The Campus Toolkit website: www.CampusToolkit.com
Course Outline and Tentative Schedule:
In our first meeting, we will discuss your starting points (i.e. your GRAD 695 final project proposals) and you will then start carrying out your proposed project. There will be a couple of lectures for the first two or three meetings.
You will have check-ins throughout the semester which you will provide interim reports of your project progress (solid written documents) along with possible project presentations.
Your final project report along with your final presentations are due as specified
|
Capstone Information Capstone studies (6 semester hours of research thesis or practical projects) are a unique characteristic of the Graduate programs at Harrisburg University. The 6 semester hours of work concludes the Master’s degree and helps the students to synthesize their knowledge and gain further insights through research investigation or practical exploration. This document provides information about the structure, guidelines, supervising faculty and topics of research and practical investigations.
GRAD 699 Graduate Thesis (3 semester hours) Prerequisites: GRAD 695 and the permission of instructor Description: In consultation with the advisor, the student will conduct research to address a problem as identified in GRAD 695. |
HU Core Competencies to be emphasized in this course
HU Core Competencies Emphasized in this Course:
1. Critical thinking & problem solving
2. Teamwork & collaboration
3. Communication
4. Information technology
The following are definitions of selected core competencies, reproduced from the HU Core Competency Document:
1) Critical Thinking: The ability to evaluate and integrate multiple sources of information through experience, reason and training. Critical thinkers will demonstrate aptitude in –
a. Drawing conclusions
b. Recognizing and differentiating facts, opinions and inferences
c. Being aware of diverse connections.
d. Ability to revise conclusions as new information becomes available.
e. Recognize and work through problems
2) Communication: The skill of successful understanding while exercising the two-way flow of information through different methods including spoken, written and illustrative exchange. Those demonstrating communication skills will show aptitude in –
a. Professional comportment in appropriate situations
b. Formulation of organized arguments
c. Comfort with presenting their ideas in different forms
d. Comfort with different audiences
3) Teamwork and Collaboration: The ability to work effectively with others in a concerted effort toward a common goal. Those showing effective skills at collaboration will demonstrate an aptitude in –
a. Recognizing how to maximize a group’s efficiency through the strengths of individual group members
b. Planning and realistic goal setting
c. Displaying individual responsibility to the whole
4) Recognizing inter-individual skills to find best solutions Information Literacy: The knowledge and familiarity with different media types along with efficient storage and retrieval methods. An information literate citizen will demonstrate an aptitude in –
a. The ability to recover information appropriate to given issues, arguments or problems
b. The ability to quickly evaluate sources and content in an information rich world
c. The ability to condense information to salient and concise arguments
The HU Student Code of Conduct/Honor Code is found in the Student Handbook at Student Conduct and Policies at Harrisburg University (sharepoint.com). Students are expected to adhere to it at all times. As a Community of Learners: We respect and uphold the HU honor code.
Plagiarism, AI use, and Academic Dishonesty
According to the University's Student Handbook: Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception, and is the educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity will be thoroughly investigated, and where warranted, punitive action will be taken. Students should be aware that standards for documentation and intellectual contribution may depend on the course content and method of teaching, and should consult the instructor for guidance in this area. Consult The Student Handbook for further information.
Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and will be addressed by punitive actions. If detected, your instructor will discuss the case and a decision (failure in assignment and/or failure in course and/or expulsion from HU). It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to read and know about plagiarism.
You can read more at:
http://www.plagiarism.org/
https://www.umuc.edu/students/academic-integrity/tutorial.cfm
As a Community of learners we will honor and uphold the Harrisburg University honor code found in student handbook (HU catalogue)
Please note that inappropriate citations will not be tolerated and constitute academic
dishonesty. An inappropriate citation occurs when a source is cited that is irrelevant to the
information it is referencing or the topic overall or when a student does not read the material
they are citing. Inappropriate citation also include having in-text citations that do not correspond with a complete reference in the reference section. Citing a source that cannot be provided (full text upon request) by the student or found by the professor represents and inappropriate citation. Citing sources that the student did not read represents an inappropriate citation. Inappropriate citations will result in failure of the assignment and referral to the University for academic misconduct at the professor's discretion. Please check your references prior to all submissions. An excuse that the wrong draft being submitted is not a valid excuse.
Late assignments will not be accepted. Acceptable excuses include hospitalization of student or death of immediate family member. The Major Assignment is assigned in the first lectures, giving the student multiple months to complete. Acute illness or technical difficulty are not an excuse to not turn in the assignment. Any excuse requires formal documentation and acceptance is at the discretion of the professor. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure they have access to a reliable internet connection for any online activity. These aspects of late assignments are ultimately at the discretion of the professor.
Policy on AI use in GRAD 699: Turn-it-in AI checking software will be used on every submitted assignment throughout the semester. Any similarity score over 30% will not be accepted. Any submission with a similarity score over 30% will result in the student being notified via EMAIL and via the assignment submission portal on CANVAS with instructions to resubmit the assignment withing 24 hours of notification or as directed by the instructor. If the follow-up submission has equal or higher similarity score, it may receive an originality grade of “zero” or the assignment may receive a grade of zero at the instructor’s discretion. Please exercise caution when using translation software, autocompletion programs, or grammar assistants as they may result in AI similarity. Please refrain from using “AI” tools for writing purposes. Please do not use grammar assisting software like Grammerly®.
**********************************************************
Referencing and Citation
Proper citation and referencing are REQUIRED and necessary for ALL your assignments. Consult the followings for further information about referencing and citation:
http://www.plagiarism.org/citing-sources/overview
Improper or false citations are grounds for failure of the course. Please contact the professor with any questions. Please do not utilize AI to cite your thesis or presentation. Failure to read your references in full is grounds for failure.
Tentative schedule
