COURSES TAUGHT
Introductory Sociology for Healthcare Professions (Fall 2015–Fall 2021, Fall 2023)
Medical Sociology (Spring 2017)
Regression Models for Categorical Data (Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015)
Event History Analysis and Sequence Analysis (Spring 2019)
Multivariate Statistics (Fall 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021)
SELECTED STUDENT COMMENTS
Introductory Sociology for Healthcare Professions
What are the strengths of this course?
“The organization and flexibility of the syllabus, and the teacher herself! Also, the quizzes and tests still challenged us to study but were fair.”
“This course was a very cohesive introduction to Sociology, complete with pertinent examples from the medical world. The instructor acknowledged that many of the students were taking the course in order to prepare for the MCAT, and she was exceptional at gearing the course towards this end. I feel very prepared for the MCAT.”
“EVERYTHING. I LOVED THIS COURSE AND LOVED PROFESSOR FAN. She is so knowledgable and friendly.”
“This course has made me a better thinker, a better citizen, a better person, and a better future healthcare provider. My understanding of the world has now been given more color having learned different lenses to view it through. Everybody who is going to work as a healthcare provider should take this course to better understand what their patients might be going through.”
“Very thorough, we went through a lot of material in this semester and while some it was “boring”, her lectures always incorporated videos or data or interactive discussions that helped demonstrate important concepts and broke up the monotony of the class. I always walked away from class learning new things and I really appreciated that about this class. It related many things to the Healthcare profession which I found very useful as a basis.”
“Despite this being a larger class, there are opportunities to participate in small groups and with the entire class. Professor Fan wants students to focus on learning the material, as opposed to getting a good grade- and her intention really did help me to learn the material.”
“This course explores many different topics of sociology. Although focused primarily on healthcare, it offers the chance to explore gender, religion, education, etc.The grading system in this course is really great too. It allows students to focus on the material instead of getting an A in the end.”
“The examples and videos are very engaging and help to comprehend the material. Loved the essays and applying the theories to the real world.”
“This course successfully presents sociological ideas and terms in the context of healthcare. We had a variety of assignments (quizzes, papers, exams, participation logs) so the course was tailored to enabling everyone the opportunity to do well. Prof. Fan incorporates many graphs/videos in her powerpoints which is extremely helpfu.”
“A great professor that is always quite prepared for class. Also the quizzes and other assignments are all very doable.”
“The information we learn is general at first, but then is applied to healthcare and that is very interesting and makes what we are learning applicable to the careers all of the students in the class hope to pursue.”
“-well organized
-Prof. is very competent with material
-provides interesting life examples, videos, articles, etc
-essay prompts were interesting and relevant
-helpful to understanding the material.”
“It’s extremely interesting, enlightening and what I consider important information that everyone should learn. It was also presented in an interesting way with a lot of videos to keep students engaged.”
“The professor truly cares about the students and wants them to do well. She is very interested in the material and makes it interesting by relating the material to relevant concepts and showing interesting videos.”
“The professor went over important sociological concepts in a clear, straightforward manner. I felt like I learned the concepts very well from just going to class, which made reviewing and studying much easier. The material was interesting and relevant, which is also a big plus. Finally, the class was realistic in its expectations. The videos were very helpful and interesting as well.”
“Very organized, lots of in-class videos to provide real-life, current examples of sociological concepts. Instructor gives clear explanations, accurate syllabus, she’s open to answer questions.”
“The course covered various topics and a lot of material while still explaining the material well. The weekly quizzes were beneficial because they made you study the material each week, which made studying for the mid-term a lot easier. The videos and other examples we talked about in class were relevant and also very interesting.”
“- professor is enthusiastic, wants to make this a good class
– examples that supplement material are interesting
– paper topics are interesting, I actually enjoyed writing them
– geared toward premeds”
Would you recommend this course to other students, majors, etc.? Why or why not?
“I would recommend this course not only because it covers material that will be on the MCAT but also because it was engaging and a fun class to go to. The professor was clearly very interested in the subject matter and chose interesting studies and videos to include into the lectures to engage us more. She promoted class discussion which made our class feel more unique than a lecture hall where students don’t participate. Overall, I think this class was very rewarding in how to understand how many factors affect human behavior in all facets of life.”
“Yes, to all majors and people who are interested in the effects of healthcare in a broader sense. I just feel like it’s an important subject to be educated on.”
“Yes, the class is intellectually stimulating, and it may force you to think about society in a different perspective.”
“Any student looking towards professional schools will find this course to be useful due to sociology’s relevance on the MCAT and in the medical world. Other students may be able to connect the course’s teachings to their own lives, making it a great core choice.”
“Absolutely. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to become more educated about societies and how they function. It is really fascinating.”
“YES. The class material was very interesting, textbook was a good read, professor was always willing to answer questions and knew about her topics, class was relevant to what was currently happening and applicable for medical professions or even just normal students.”
“Yes. This course is a very straightforward introduction to sociology and teaches the important concepts required to have an understanding of it. I didn’t know much about sociology before taking the course, and was only really in it for the core, but I learned a lot and have a greater appreciation for this area of study now.”
“Yes, i would recommend it for core, major, and pre-med students. It’s just a really interesting course and you learn so much about sociology. I also loved that Professor Fan incorporated medical/health information because thats the field I’m interested in pursuing.”
“I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in healthcare. I feel like this class made me observant of social interactions and will help me in the future.”
“Yes, I would definitely recommend this course to other students, as the workload is very manageable and I think the knowledge I have gained through this class will be utilized in my future career. As I stated above, Professor Fan wants to students to focus on learning the material, and the way her class is structured ensures this.”
“Yes I would, it provided a solid foundation of social principles that are needed in order to understand the world in a way that allows us to interact with others in a fair and beneficial way.”
Regression Models for Categorical Data
What are the strengths of this course?
“Covered advanced material without being overwhelming. Dove deeper into concepts that we mostly already were familiar with. Gave a lot of really helpful, practical information that we can use immediately in our work. Teacher was clearly extremely knowledgable, willing to help, willing to answer questions.”
“The course offers a strong overview of methods of categorical analysis and some STATA overview.”
“This course is pretty hard but indeed helpful.”
“The topic is definitely interesting. The case studies of articles constituted nice exercises.”
“The professor was very knowledgeable on the subjects being taught!”
“The strength of the course is Professor Fan’s interactive teaching style. She calls on students during class session to interpret coefficients and different statistics. She also had in class exercises for students to complete. I think this was a very notable strength for the class.”
“The lecture style is very clear and organized.”
“The professor is very well organized. She returns the assignments in time.”
“The assignments are very much appropriate given the course lectures. The time to complete exercises in class was helpful to put concepts into practice immediately.”
“The selection of topics. The instructor is very knowledgeable.”
“Wen Fan honestly saved my statistics career. I learned more in one semester with Wen than I learned in three semesters in [XX]. Wen is very knowledgeable and was able to anser questions in ways that really made sense. She was organized and effective in her communication style, and I also appreciated meeting with her outside of class to get one–on–one help. My understanding of statistics has grown a lot and I have already seen the effects of this in my work and research.”
Would you recommend this course to other students, majors, etc.? Why or why not?
“I would recommend it to anyone with a good grasp of OLS regression (this should be a requirement for all).”
“Yes! The material was helpful, and you got to learn Stata, which was also helpful.”
“I would absolutely recommend this course to other students who would like to learn regression analysis for social sciences.”
“Yes, if they have a background in statistics because it is a very thorough course on regression and using stata.”
“Yes. Great class! I like that the professor continually asked for feedback throughout the class.”