Pedagogy in Health Promotion

The COVID-19 pandemic and simultaneous “infodemic” have amplified the need for electronic health (eHealth) literacy, one’s ability to find, evaluate, and apply online health information to make health decisions. To date, only a few studies have examined eHealth literacy among U.S. college students. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the eHealth literacy of students attending 4-year and 2-year colleges in the Pacific Northwest. A purposeful sample of 781 college students enrolled in nonhealth- and health-related programs completed an electronic version of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). Descriptive, bivariate, and logistical regression were used in the data analyses. Results showed that while there were no significant differences in composite scores by the demographic variables explored, differences on individual eHEALS items emerged between 2-year and 4-year college students, by the first-generation status, and by gender. First-generation students’ mean scores were lower in all areas of eHealth literacy when compared with non-first-generation students. Chi-square tests revealed significant differences in first-generation students’ perceived ability to know how (χ² = 5.4, p = .020) and where (χ² = 6.7, p = .010) to find health resources on the internet, as well as how to tell high-quality from low-quality health resources (χ² = 5.0, p = .025). Students who identified as male were more likely than females to agree that they are “confident in using information from the internet to make health decisions” (p = .028). Our findings underscore the need to strengthen higher education curricula and pedagogy to improve students’ eHealth literacy.

There has been increased commitment to youth engagement in public health. However, those seeking to engage youth often lack the knowledge and skills to sustain meaningful youth engagement, constraining the potential positive impacts. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of training programs for practitioners who seek to increase their capacity to engage youth authentically. Given the need to train adults who work with youth, we developed and evaluated an online course to support public health and social service professionals in a social justice approach to youth engagement. During this 7-week course, grounded in social justice youth development theory, participants analyzed how power, privilege, and oppression operated in their own lives and engaged in conversations about disrupting systems of power that oppress young people. Fifty-eight participants completed the course as part of four cohorts, and 41 participants completed a survey (71% response rate) at all four time points (pre, post, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up). Paired t tests showed that participants experienced significant changes (p < .0001) in their confidence to implement practices and curricula associated with social justice youth development, critique and provide evidence-informed recommendations to their organizational setting, and describe and disrupt adultism—the systematic subordination of youth by adults. Effects were sustained 6 months post course. Qualitative responses to survey items further supported the positive benefit of the course on their professional youth work. This course provides a promising model for training public health and social service professionals on how to authentically work with youth through a social justice lens.

We theorized that integrating student-led class activities would foster accountability and active learning in a graduate-level public health implementation science course. We used mixed methods to collect students’ feedback about two active-learning teaching techniques, wherein students were randomly selected to lead class discussions and deliver short, informal “snapshot” lectures. Students reported that both activities encouraged student initiative, engagement with the material, and completion of the assigned readings. However, students thought that the student-led discussions were more enjoyable, made the course more interesting, and contributed more to their learning. These techniques can stimulate active learning and student accountability in public health courses.

Optometrists play a vital role in the prevention and management of many eye diseases. The expansion of optometrists’ prescribing and overall medical privileges has placed a burden on the optometric curriculum, limiting hours in professional topics courses such as practice management and public health. While the overall objectives may differ, the pedagogical challenges would be similar in public health training programs. That is, reduced hours and limited contact with students during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic both place pedagogical demands on the optometric and public health educator alike to meet learning objectives and course outcomes using atypical methods. As the current evidence about problem- or scenario-based versus lecture-based outcomes is equivocal, we randomly assigned half the students in an epidemiology/public health course to a case-based learning (CBL) group using three instructors naïve to problem-based teaching. The other half of the students attended lectures covering the same topics. Performance gains—the differences between the pretest and posttest scores—were compared between the two learning groups. The mean performance gain for the CBL group (M = 25.5%) was slightly higher than for the lecture-based learning group (M = 23.6%), but the difference was not statistically significant, t(56) = 0.71, p = .48. Inferences are discussed in the context of the study’s design and limitations. Overall, we believe our results can be extended to public health and health professions programs needing creative methods to reach health promotion learning objectives with limited student contact.

Leaders in the fields of public health and health education/health promotion have been advocating for required credentialing for almost two decades. Recently, some have questioned whether increasing the number of certified professionals could help better differentiate properly trained health educators and public health professionals from others seeking to fill jobs in this professional area. The purpose of this article is to determine how the CHES/MCHES (Certified Health Education Specialist/Master Certified Health Education Specialist) and CPH (Certified in Public Health) credentials are regarded and promoted within the field of health education/health promotion. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to determine program directors’ (N = 90) views of credentialing issues. The health belief model and the transtheoretical model were used to determine perceived barriers, benefits, and self-efficacy with regard to promoting credentialing and readiness to require the CHES or CPH exam as part of the undergraduate curriculum. Ninety undergraduate programs completed the survey with the majority reporting that they do not require credentialing of faculty and students as part of their program of study. More than 70% of respondents, however, indicated that they thought credentialing in the fields of public health and health education/health promotion is an important issue. Most program directors indicated there is value in having students credentialed in health education or public health, yet few programs required the CHES or CPH exam as part of their curriculum or exit assessment. There are opportunities to use credentialing both in assessing program curriculum alignment with competencies and student mastery of said competencies.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical framework that centers on a problem of interest and structures classroom tasks around teams formulating practical, evidence-based solutions. This approach is particularly well-suited for public health curricula, as it prepares students for a dynamic, interdisciplinary, professional environment. This study explores the piloting of a PBL approach with three student cohorts in a graduate-level public mental health course. Biweekly, interdisciplinary student teams were presented with a public mental health case provided by an expert in the field and asked to develop and present evidence-based solutions through a process grounded in knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, and faculty guidance. A mixed-methods evaluation was completed to examine student perceptions of PBL components and the benefits of PBL and to gather recommendations to enhance this approach. Among 37 students who completed self-administered surveys, more than 70% found case analysis, reviewing additional literature to support case solutions, and discussions with an expert to be the components “Most Helpful” to their learning. Four focus groups with 21 students were conducted to further examine perceived course benefits and suggested changes. Participants appreciated real-world simulations of public health issues and interdisciplinary teams and offered recommendations for future improvements, such as adding a culminating project. Findings support the benefits of a PBL approach in equipping graduate students with the knowledge and skills to successfully pursue professional public health work. Recommendations inform future efforts to implement this approach in other public health curricula as well as for other courses and settings.

Responding to the 2016 Council on Education for Public Health foundational competency requirement that students demonstrate the ability to “perform effectively in interprofessional teams,” the distance-based executive master’s program at Emory University developed an innovative interprofessional education (IPE) experience for geographically dispersed mid-career professionals. Because executive students are mid-career professionals from a variety of disciplines, they participated in this experience representing their professional roles and titles. IPE student groups represented at least three distinct disciplines. The executive program created a four-part online experience consisting of (1) a self-paced didactic module, (2) a synchronous case study group discussion, (3) small (three to five students) group development of a video solution to the case study, and (4) peer review of other groups’ case study solutions. The first-year pilot program was evaluated via standard online course evaluations and a separate evaluation survey sent immediately after completion of the complete experience. Of those responding to the standard course evaluation, 61.1% reported that they learned a great deal in the course and, of those responding to the immediate evaluation survey, 87.5% reported being very satisfied or satisfied with the experience. During the second iteration of the program, an additional survey, the Nebraska Inter-Professional Education Attitudes Survey identified improvement on 9 out of 19 attitudes toward interprofessional education. Overall, this IPE experience offered a unique way to employ the strengths of executive students and provide a meaningful IPE encounter for students in geographically diverse locations.

The public health workforce needs an array of knowledge and skills to effectively address current and future public health challenges. While existing competency models establish educational objectives for public health degree programs, there is insufficient guidance on how academic programs should develop these competencies, and workforce assessments continue to identify skills gaps in areas such as critical thinking and problem analysis. In this article, we describe an approach for designing undergraduate public health courses based on the hierarchy of cognitive processes in Bloom’s taxonomy. Course activities are sequenced to provide students with opportunities to attain increasing mastery of course concepts and analytical skills, from remembering new concepts to applying them in case studies and creating original analyses and proposals. This simple approach has been applied to three separate courses taught by multiple instructors over 3 years and has received positive feedback from students. By explicitly communicating the theoretical basis for course activities, this approach also promotes metacognitive knowledge in students that can foster their continued learning success.

In 2017, the College of Public Health implemented a “teaching incentive” by which faculty would receive extra pay if the composite score of teaching effectiveness on the student assessment of instruction (SAI) was in the top third for all scores in the college in that same semester, and at least 40% of the students in the class completed the SAI. In the first 4 years, 53 incentives were awarded to 25 different members of the faculty, for a total of $206,772. The college documented an increase in the composite score of teaching effectiveness and in percent of students completing the SAI. Significant increases in the composite score were seen for all faculty (3.47 to 3.59 out of 4.00, p = .02) and for those faculty in the college for the entire period (3.47 to 3.57, p = .0189). Over the 4 years, the percent of classes that had at least a 40% response rate increased for all faculty (41.2% to 55.7%, p = .0447) and for faculty who were in the college for the entire 4 years (39.6% to 51.9%, p = .1373). A teaching incentive that includes a significant salary supplementation appears to be associated with an increase in both student response rates and overall assessment of teaching effectiveness.