PUBLIC HEALTH 512 - Critical Analysis of Health Disparities

Public Health 512 - Critical Analysis of Health Disparities

Caroline Wang is a senior faculty member in the field of public health. She's been teaching a course on health disparities at the University of Michigan for the past 3 years.
The course asks students to critically analyze the complexity of health disparities rooted in multiple levels of historic and contemporary inequities. These levels include health care systems, health policies and health care professionals.

Caroline's goal is to use a Sakai course site she built over the summer to engage students in critical analysis of health disparities and encourage them to work collaboratively on innovative solutions to address these disparities.

Pedagogical challenges to address in the online environment:
¿ This course uses multiple guest speakers with extensive experience in specific areas of health disparities
¿ This course requires students to analyze cases and to engage in peer analysis/review
¿ This course has students in multiple time zones
¿ This course requires students to engage in a community project that must be supervised by the faculty member and presented in an online environment

Group Notes:

Issue: It would be best to address these issue prior to course site development.  Meet initially to review syllabus and discuss pedagogy strategy.

1. Synchronous vs. Asynchronous - logistical issues, guest schedule, recording sessions good idea.
   1. 1. Have guest submit readings for students ahead of time and have students develop questions.
      2. Pre-recorded video could be used.  Have them capture disparies "on location" to demonstration reality of issues.
         1. There are production costs and logistical challenges.  Reusability is a factors.
      3. Could also use a podcast.
      4. Could use Wimba or similar audio discussion
      5. Agora or develop API to connect to web conferencing tools
2. Could use project sites to support case study analysis or group aware tools.  Use a wiki to allow for peer review and analysis.
3. Need to balance synchronous vs. asynchronous.  Could run sessions at different times to allow participation across many time zones.
4. Empower students by having them to get out into the field and share what they've learned online (social podcast)
   1. Students could create a portfolio