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CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, AND PEDAGOGY article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1496283
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative Teaching and Learning in Health Education and Promotion View all 14 articles

Design and assessment of a public health course as the general education elective course for non-medical undergraduates

Provisionally accepted
Xinyang Li Xinyang Li 1Xiaoxi Zheng Xiaoxi Zheng 2Boqiang Wen Boqiang Wen 3Bowei Zhang Bowei Zhang 1Xiaolong Xing Xiaolong Xing 1Liye Zhu Liye Zhu 1Wentao Gu Wentao Gu 1Shuo Wang Shuo Wang 1*
  • 1 Tianjin Key Laboratory of Food Science and Health, Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
  • 2 School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
  • 3 Institute of Health Education, Hebei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shijiazhuang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although the Public health programs among undergraduate students have been increasing and gaining popularity around the world, few studies have focused on the need and structure of public health courses for non-medical students. The objective of this study was to design a public health course as a general education elective for non-medical undergraduates at Nankai University, one of the key multidisciplinary and research-oriented universities in China. Students' feedback on the course was collected and analyzed after the completion of the elective course. We designed the course under the general education elective course at Nankai University. The course consists of four segments: a). Public Health Fundamentals and Population Research Methods, b). Chemical Safety and Health, c). Diet, Nutrition and Health, d). Immunology, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases, in 34 class hours (including 6 class hours as flipped classroom). The teaching content was divided into five parts: 1). Health and Medicine Knowledge, 2). Public Health Knowledge, 3). Public Health Methodology and Philosophy, 4). Proper View on Health Issues and 5). Values Education. Students' feedback after the course showed that Diet, Nutrition and Health was the most interesting segment, and the basic biological or medical knowledge was opined to be the more important than other public health knowledge by the students. A problem-based learning model was imparted for flipped classrooms, and we found that the problem-based learning questions were not only helpful for students' knowledge construction, but also for educators in understanding and managing the learning expectation of the non-medical students. We believe that the lesson may inform other institutions in designing such curricula.

    Keywords: Public Health, pedagogy, Non-medical students, undergraduate, General education curriculum, instruction, and Pedagogy

    Received: 14 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zheng, Wen, Zhang, Xing, Zhu, Gu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shuo Wang, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Food Science and Health, Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

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