Since 2015, incoming T.H. Chan School of Public Health students have been introduced to public health through an orientation course originally conceptualized, developed, and taught by former Dean Julio Frenk and Dr. Sue J. Goldie. The course aims to establish a solid foundation for graduate students' education, experiences, and engagements over the academic year. Since its inaugural year, the course has been reimagined by Professor Goldie and formally pivoted to an online summer course in 2019 which concludes with an in-person class during orientation week. In subsequent years, Professor Goldie has augmented the course to better explore core concepts as they relate to rapid changes in public health in the present moment.
Students are introduced to the principles and science of public health, the major causes of morbidity and mortality, the social determinants of health, and the ways society can respond from the health sector and from outside the health sector. They become familiar with commonly used metrics and measures that make up the "language of public health" and are exposed to conceptual frameworks that will help them to “ask the right questions.” This year's redesign included the development of new videos on current interdisciplinary health problems facing populations–locally and globally. These included short data snapshots on disease and injury burden in the U.S., highlighting the role of gun violence and substance use disorders. Several short-form videos were also produced to introduce students to required readings in order to guide them to look at specific aspects or prompt a reflection.
Course Goals
Students are not asked to master the knowledge, skills, and competencies that would be expected upon graduation but rather to focus on four fundamental goals:
I. Develop a solid foundation for advanced education in public health, including an understanding of the principles and science of public health, the major causes of morbidity and mortality, the determinants of health, and the ways society can respond from the health sector and from outside the health sector.
II. Be exposed to conceptual frameworks or "cognitive scaffolding" that can help students to organize their thinking about interdisciplinary public health challenges. "Informal visual maps" can illuminate points of consensus, crystallize where there is debate, and expose uncertainties and knowledge gaps as students are exposed to topics from different disciplinary perspectives.
III. Review frequently used terms, commonly used metrics and measures, and provide students an opportunity to engage in "self-screening" for graphical and numerical literacy.
IV. Establish an introduction to transnational risks and global governance, conceptualized through the lens of public health, preparing them to engage academically and professionally with the most consequential global challenges of our times.
Visual Tools and Learning Techniques
Dr. Goldie uses visual tools and drawings to promote conceptual understanding, strategic thinking, and effective communication in her online courses. Each of the lessons in this course is taught using this multimodal approach through Sue's own drawings and teaching practices, and students are encouraged to take their own sketch notes.
Over the years, students have expressed interest in learning more about how the course was designed, the techniques behind pedagogical choices, visual learning, and multimedia approaches, and how to develop and apply creative methodologies to their learning and professional experiences. We developed a Teaching Toolkit: Visual Tools and Techniques, which contains seven individually curated guides. It includes tailored resources and tips for data visualization, “drawing to learn” techniques, design elements, images, and icons, word clouds, and infographics, “mind mapping” techniques, taking sketch notes, and a collection of recommended and low-cost sketch supplies.
The Modules
There are four core foundation modules (Module A, B, C, and D), each of which contains an average of three lessons. Each lesson generally consists of a few required readings and short videos with a brief “knowledge check” quiz at the end of most videos and an assessment at the end of each module. Short answers have been incorporated to better prepare students to interactively discuss content in the fall within their courses.
Click on the portal buttons below to learn more about the modules, watch video lessons, and explore accompanying visuals.
Module A
In this module, we will discuss the philosophy and values of public health, consider the field’s historical journey, and explore its relationship to global health. Public health adopts a population-level analysis and is both a multidisciplinary field of inquiry and a space for professional practice. We will explore global changes that present both risks and opportunities to health—the impact of globalization on health, shifting population dynamics, and changing epidemiological patterns. You will become familiar with a conceptual framework that is constructed around “the health challenges in the population” and “the organized societal responses to those challenges.” Within the context of that framework, we will explore the interrelationships between health conditions and the social, political, economic, and environmental determinants of health.
Module B
This module will focus on the major causes and trends of morbidity and mortality due to health conditions, risk factors, and injuries, highlighting how existing patterns of disease are complicated by globalization and how new risks emerge as a result of globalization. We will build our epidemiological vocabulary and strengthen data literacy skills, allowing us to describe and understand differences between and within countries. We will become familiar with the global burden of disease and how individual health metrics are aggregated to estimate population summary measures, such as DALYs. Finally, we will use data from the latest GBD study to explore global patterns and trends of diseases, injuries, and risk factors, as well as the causes and trends of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. and selected other countries. This module will illustrate the role of quantitative methods and sciences, in particular, and the critical importance of evidence in advancing public health knowledge.
Module C
In this module, we will explore the influence of the social, political, economic, and environmental determinants of health on population health and health inequity. We will acknowledge that terminologies and conceptual frameworks associated with the determinants of health differ by motivation, purpose, and context—with that understanding we will look at a few different examples to gain an understanding of the difference between “upstream factors” (i.e., structural factors resulting from the institutions and policies that make up our socioeconomic and political context and result in an unequal distribution of power, money, and resources) and “downstream factors” (i.e., the daily circumstances of our lives). Finally, we will examine the dynamic relationship between health and human rights and discuss the overturning of Roe versus Wade to illustrate the intersection of politics, policy, and health disparities.
Module D
In this module, we will begin by acknowledging the variable definitions and grey area between the terms “national health system,” “public health system,” and “global health system.” We will define the objectives and functions of a national health system, learn about the core functions and essential services of the public health system, and discuss the importance of ethics in research and practice. We will discuss how health services vary by level (e.g., tertiary, secondary, primary, promotion), intervention type (e.g., individual, population), prevention type (primary, secondary, tertiary), as well as the criteria for screening. We will define global governance, review the functions of a global health system, and provide resources for you to explore global challenges such as pandemic risk and climate change. Finally, we will leverage our ecological framework to introduce the concept of One Health, an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and collaborative approach that bridges the human, animal, and environmental sectors to achieve better health outcomes.