Surveillance practice is evolving rapidly: globalization of health threats, emergence of infectious diseases, and explosion of easily accessible new technologies. This fluid environment challenges the public health community, but provides it with a fertile environment to innovate and improve its practice. As surveillance is a core function of public health practice, public health practitioners need to be well equipped to achieve this function and address present and future public health challenges. We developed a training course that focused on the practical use of surveillance concepts and principles. We are sharing findings on the development of the course and learner outcomes.