Progress 09/01/08 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Pathways to Public Health deliverables were: 1) an online introductory public health survey course offered jointly by Kansas State University (K-State) and three community college partners; 2) a summer residency experience allowing undergraduate students to explore the four K-State public health emphasis areas of food safety, infectious disease, human nutrition, and physical activity; 3) a 5 year BS/MPH program; 4) a Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. Dr. Kimathi Choma, a 2007 K-State DVM graduate and current MPH student, was hired as the Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. He 1) facilitated the multi-institutional faculty effort focused on creation and delivery of the online course at each of the partner locations, 2) coordinated SURPH, the Summer Undergraduate Residency in Public Health, and 3) conducted extensive dissemination and recruiting activities in the metropolitan Kansas City area and elsewhere in Kansas to recruit students, particularly students of color, to Pathways. The online introductory public health course was developed in the first project year by cooperating faculty members from K-State, Dodge City Community College (DCCC), Johnson County Community College (JCCC) and Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC). It has been offered every Fall and Spring semester since Fall 09 at JCCC and KCCC and by K-State in Spring semesters. DCCC plans to offer it in the future. The community college course sections fill consistently and K-State's offering also has had sufficient interest. The Public Health Nutrition major at K-State is making the course a requirement. This course also is being offered to high school students in one district through an accelerated program with JCCC. The Summer Undergraduate Residency in Public Health (SURPH) was offered on the K-State Manhattan campus in Summers 2009-2012. Enrollment, which is limited by the field experience component, has ranged from three to 14 students. All were fully supported by scholarships from a Kansas Health Foundation award to K-State. Course content includes interactive discussions with experts on farm-to-fork food safety, shadowing of K-State Extension Agents engaged in public health nutrition, playing a newly developed game based on the USDA's MyPlate concept, discussions on zoonoses and human-animal bond topics with experts, touring microbiology laboratories dedicated to infectious disease testing and research, visiting a grocery store to apply newly gained nutrition knowledge, touring multiple health care facilities, learning and performing activities designed to promote physical fitness among youth and adults, and exploring the interconnections among human, animal, and environmental health that make up the One Health concept. Project leaders continue discussion of how best to offer a SURPH-like experience in the Kansas City metropolitan area for place-bound students there. In 2009, we worked with the K-State MPH program to engage relevant undergraduate programs to establish mechanisms to create the accelerated BS/MPH from their degrees. These were put in place for Fall 2010 and four BS/MPH students have enrolled since that time. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project included all of the course principal and co-principal investigators, who represent the four partnering educational institutions. Other community college faculty members also contributed to development of the online course. An experienced instructional designer, Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew of the K-State Instructional Technology Assistance Center, was instrumental in leading the course design effort. Dr. Kimathi Choma, Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs, was hired for this project and also is working on an MPH degree, which he will complete in May 2013. He has made many connections among units at K-State, with partner community colleges, and with secondary educational institutions during the project. He also attended the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute and has contacts with state and local public health officials. We are at this time identifying ways to institutionalize his position and the pipeline developed following completion of the project. TARGET AUDIENCES: This project was designed to recruit students from racial and ethnic groups currently underrepresented in the public health workforce into our educational programs. For this reason, we partnered with community colleges in urban Kansas City and southwestern Kansas. In the future, we would like to expand the audience for both the introductory online course and SURPH to include more students the targeted areas. To this end, we plan to offer the course to additional community college students by making use of the Edu-Kan consortium of community colleges in western Kansas, of which DCCC is a member. We are exploring options for creating a SURPH-type experience for place-bound community college students, particularly those in the Kansas City metropolitan area. We hope to conduct a pilot course at KCKCC in Summer 2013. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The three major products of this project were: 1)a new online public health survey course offered at community colleges and K-State; 2) a new summer undergraduate residency experience in public health (SUPRH); 3) a series of new combined/accelerated degree paths including a bachelor's in a relevant area leading to an MPH in as few as five years. In the four years of the project, 288 students from 3 community colleges and K-State had access to public health content and careers as undergraduates. We established ongoing collaborative interactions among faculty members from the community colleges and K-State to create an educational pipeline to recruit students into public health careers. We continue to track community college students transferring to public health-related BS programs to determine whether the program is having an effect on numbers of students entering the pipeline into these majors and careers. So far three students who took the intro course at a community college have transferred into a public health-related degree program at K-State, three students who took part in SURPH have graduated with public health-related BS degrees, and the majority of SURPH students still enrolled are in public health-related majors. We created printed materials, a display, and a website to promote the integrated program and its components. We publicized these opportunities to Kansas community college, university, and medical school students, faculty members, administrators, members of the public health workforce, and to prospective students and families at K-State recruiting events. We evaluated both the introductory online course and SURPH. 71 responses were received to the post-participation survey for Introduction to Public Health. 25% definitely intend to complete a degree in an area related to public health; 34% are considering completing a degree in an area related to public health; while 37% reported that they do not intend to complete a degree in an area related to public health. Students indicated being "Somewhat Confident" to "Very Confident" in achieving the student learning outcomes. Overall, 27% were very satisfied, 49% were satisfied, 15% were neither dissatisfied nor satisfied, 6% were dissatisfied, and 1% was very dissatisfied with the course. Eleven significant differences were found between students' ratings on the pre- and post-participation surveys. Increases were found related to students' self-reported familiarity with public health topics, their awareness of where to find resources about public health topics, their confidence in their knowledge and abilities related to public health, their familiarity with online resources about public health, and their use of online resources about public health. Students' knowledge increased for all six of the core topics. 27 students completed the post-SURPH evaluation. Components of the program seen as most valuable were interactions with public health professionals, interactions with faculty/staff, and class discussion. In terms of their overall satisfaction with the program, 13 students were very satisfied, 13 were satisfied, and one was neither dissatisfied nor satisfied.
Publications
- S. Hai-Jew, L.C. Freeman, and B. A. Montelone, 2011, Globalizing and Localizing: Creating an Introductory Public Health Course and Online Learning Environment (A Case Study), in Instructional Technology Research Design and Development, N. A. Alias and S. Hashim, eds., IGI Global: Hershey, PA. Published.
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Pathways to Public Health deliverables were: 1) an online introductory public health survey course offered jointly by Kansas State University (K-State) and three community college partners; 2) a summer residency experience allowing undergraduate students to explore the four K-State public health emphasis areas of food safety, infectious disease, human nutrition, and physical activity; 3) a 5 year BS/MPH program; 4) a Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. Dr. Kimathi Choma, a 2007 K-State DVM graduate and current MPH student, was hired as the Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. He has 1) facilitated the multi-institutional faculty effort focused on creation and delivery of the online course at each of the partner locations, 2) coordinated SURPH, the Summer Undergraduate Residency in Public Health, and 3) conducted extensive recruiting activities in the metropolitan Kansas City area and elsewhere in the Kansas to recruit students, particularly students of color, to this program. The online introductory public health course was developed over the first year of the award by cooperating faculty members from K-State, Dodge City Community College (DCCC), Johnson County Community College (JCCC) and Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC). It was first offered in Fall 09 and has been taught at JCCC and KCCC in each subsequent semester and by K-State in Spring 10 and 11. In Fall 11, the course is being offered at JCCC, KCKCC (40 students), and K-State (21 students). DCCC will offer it in Spring 12 through the Edu-Kan consortium; JCCC, KCKCC, and K-State also will offer it. The community college course sections fill consistently and K-State's offering also has had sufficient interest. The third offering of SURPH occurred in Summer 11. Enrollment was 3 community college, 9 K-State students, and 2 students from other institutions, all fully supported by scholarships from a Kansas Health Foundation award to K-State. Enrollment is limited by the field experience components of the course, which included interactive discussions with experts on farm-to-fork food safety, shadowing of K-State Extension Agents engaged in public health nutrition, playing a newly developed game based on the USDA's MyPlate concept, discussions on zoonoses and human-animal bond topics with experts, touring a microbiology laboratory dedicated to infectious disease testing, visiting a grocery store to apply newly gained nutrition knowledge, touring the Kansas State University Rabies and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories, virtually touring the Biosecurity Research Institute, touring multiple health care facilities, learning and performing activities designed to promote physical fitness among youth, learning and practicing Crossfit skills designed to increase physical fitness, and discussions on the interconnections among human, animal, and environmental health that make up the One Health concept. In 2009, we worked with the K-State MPH program to engage relevant undergraduate programs to establish mechanisms to create the accelerated BS/MPH from their degrees. There are currently three BS/MPH students, with a fourth to begin the program in spring 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project included all of the course principal and co-principal investigators, who represent the four partnering educational institutions. Other community college faculty members also contributed to development of the online course. An experienced instructional designer, Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew of the K-State Instructional Technology Assistance Center, was instrumental in leading the course design effort. Dr. Kimathi Choma, Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs, was hired for this project and has enrolled in the MPH program during the duration of the project to date. He will complete his degree in May 2012. He has made many connections among units at K-State, with partner community colleges, and with secondary educational institutions during the project. We are at this time identifying ways to institutionalize his position and the pipeline developed following completion of the project. TARGET AUDIENCES: We would like to expand the audience for both the introductory online course and SURPH. We particularly wish to engage more students from underrepresented minority groups from the Kansas City and southwest Kansas areas. To this end, we plan to offer the course to additional community college students by making use of the Edu-Kan consortium of community colleges in western Kansas, of which DCCC is a member. We are exploring options for creating a SURPH-type experience for place-bound community college students, particularly those in the Kansas City metropolitan area. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
We developed a new on-line public health survey course offered at community colleges and K-State University. The second major work product is the new summer undergraduate residency experience focused on public health (SUPRH). The third work product is a series of new combined/accelerated degree paths including a bachelor's in a relevant area leading to an MPH in as few as five years. In the first three years of the project, 170 students from 2 community colleges and K-State University had access to public health content and careers as undergraduates. We also have established ongoing collaborative interactions among faculty members from the community colleges and K-State to create an educational pipeline to recruit students into public health careers. We are in the process of tracking community college students transferring to public health-related baccalaureate programs to determine whether the program is having an effect on numbers of students entering the pipeline into these majors and careers. We have created printed materials, a display, and a website to promote the integrated program and its components, the introductory course, SURPH, and the accelerated BS/MPH. We have publicized these opportunities to groups around the state of Kansas, including community college, university, and medical school students, faculty members, administrators, members of the public health workforce, and to prospective students and families at K-State recruiting events. We have evaluated both the introductory online course and SURPH. A total of 71 responses were received to the post-participation survey for Introduction to Public Health. 25% definitely intend to complete a degree in an area related to public health; 34% indicated that they are considering completing a degree in an area related to public health; while 37% reported that they do not intend to complete a degree in an area related to public health. Students indicated being "Somewhat Confident" to "Very Confident" in achieving the 14 student learning outcomes for the course. In terms of their overall satisfaction with the course, 27% very satisfied, 49% were satisfied, 15% were neither dissatisfied nor satisfied, 6% were dissatisfied, and 1% was very dissatisfied with the course. Eleven significant differences were found between students' ratings on the pre- and post-participation surveys. Increases were found related to students' self-reported familiarity with public health topics, their awareness of where to find resources about public health topics, their confidence in their knowledge and abilities related to public health, their familiarity with online resources about public health, and their use of online resources about public health. Students' knowledge increased for all six of the core topics. 27 students completed the post-SURPH evaluation. Components of the program seen as most valuable were interactions with public health professionals, interactions with faculty/staff, and class discussion. In terms of their overall satisfaction with the program, 13 students were very satisfied, 13 were satisfied, and one was neither dissatisfied nor satisfied.
Publications
- S. Hai-Jew, L.C. Freeman, and B. A. Montelone, 2011, Globalizing and Localizing: Creating an Introductory Public Health Course and Online Learning Environment (A Case Study), in Instructional Technology Research Design and Development, N. A. Alias and S. Hashim, eds, IGI Global: Hershey, PA. Published.
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Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10
Outputs
Pathways to Public Health deliverables are: 1) an on-line introductory public health survey course offered jointly by Kansas State University (K-State) and three community college partners; 2) a summer residency experience allowing undergraduate students to explore the four K-State public health emphasis areas of food safety, infectious disease and zoonoses, human nutrition, and physical activity; 3) a 5 year BS/MPH program; 4) a Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. Dr. Kimathi Choma, a 2007 graduate of the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine and current MPH student, was hired as the Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs at the beginning of the project award period. He has contributed to the project's success by 1) facilitating the multi-institutional faculty effort focused on creation of the on-line course, 2) coordinating the first two offerings of SURPH (Summer Undergraduate Residency in Public Health), and 3) conducting extensive recruiting activities in the metropolitan Kansas City area and elsewhere in the state of Kansas to recruit students, particularly students of color, to this program. The on-line introductory public health survey course was developed over the first academic year of the award by cooperating faculty members from K-State, Dodge City Community College (DCCC), Johnson County Community College (JCCC) and Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC). It was first offered in Fall 2009 by JCCC and KCKCC and completed by 29 students. In Spring 2010, the course was offered by JCCC, KCKCC, and K-State to a total of 58 students. In Fall 2010, 42 students are enrolled at JCCC and KCKCC. The course will be offered in Spring 2011 at JCCC, KCKCC, K-State, and DCCC. The second offering of SURPH occurred in summer 2010. The SURPH experiences of eight students were fully supported by scholarships from a Kansas Health Foundation award to K-State. The students' field experiences included on-farm assessment of pre-harvest food safety, creation of media and messages to promote safe food handling practices, shadowing of K-State Extension Agents engaged in public health nutrition, a tour of the veterinary diagnostic laboratory, and a physical environment tour with an expert on promotion of physical activity. In 2009, we worked with the K-State MPH program to engage relevant undergraduate programs to obtain agreements to establish mechanisms to create the accelerated BS/MPH from their degrees. These programs were: Animal Sciences & Industry, Athletic Training, Biochemistry, Biology, Dietetics, Food Science & Industry, Human Nutrition, Kinesiology, Life Sciences, Microbiology, and Psychology. The accelerated BS/MPH will adhere to existing policies and procedures for concurrent programs as specified in the Graduate Handbook. Students can take up to 9 hours for graduate to be used toward both degrees. Students apply and are provisionally admitted to the MPH program and the Graduate School in their junior year; upon completion of the bachelor's degree, students are fully admitted to the Graduate School and MPH program. The program accomplished all steps of the academic approval process and is effective for Fall 2010. PRODUCTS: We developed a new on-line public health survey course offered at community colleges and K-State University. Course associated products include: On-line style book; 7 Course Modules; Student Study Guide; Public Health Mystery Cases. The second major work product is the new summer undergraduate residency experience focused on public health (SUPRH). The third work product is a series of new combined/accelerated degree paths including a bachelor's in a relevant area leading to an MPH in as few as five years. OUTCOMES: 129 students from 2 community colleges and K-State University were exposed to public health content and careers as undergraduates. Ongoing collaborative interactions among faculty members from three Kansas community colleges and the state land grant university to create an educational pipeline to recruit students into public health careers. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We have created printed materials, a display, and a website to promote the integrated program and its components, the introductory course, SURPH, and the accelerated BS/MPH. We have publicized these opportunities to groups around the state of Kansas, including community college, land grant university, and medical school students, faculty members, and administrators, members of the public health workforces, and at K-State recruiting events. FUTURE INITIATIVES: We plan to offer the course to additional community college students by making use of the Edu-Kan consortium of community colleges in western Kansas. We are exploring options for creating a SURPH-type experience for place-bound community college students, particularly those in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Impacts
Community college students and K-State undergraduates are learning about public health, public health careers, and the importance of interactions among human health, animal health, and environmental factors.
Publications
- S. Hai-Jew, L.C. Freeman, and B. A. Montelone, 2011, "Globalizing and Localizing: Creating an Introductory Public Health Course and Online Learning Environment (A Case Study)", in Instructional Technology Research Design and Development, N. A. Alias and S. Hashim, eds, IGI Global: Hershey, PA. Accepted for publication.
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Progress 09/01/08 to 08/31/09
Outputs
The broad goals of the funded program, Pathways to Public Health, are supported by the design and delivery of: 1) an on-line introductory public health survey course focused on public health topics and offered jointly by Kansas State University (K-State) and three community college partners; 2) a summer residency experience that allows undergraduate students to explore the four K-State public health emphasis areas of food safety, infectious disease and zoonoses, human nutrition, and physical activity; 3) a 5 year BS/MPH program; 4) a Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs. Dr. Kimathi Choma was hired as the Director of Undergraduate Public Health Programs at the beginning of the current award period. Dr. Choma is a 2007 graduate of the College of Veterinary Medicine at K-State with a unique background and skills set. Specifically, Dr. Choma has performed pre-harvest food safety research, and also worked in university student life and human healthcare sectors. Dr. Choma is currently pursuing an MPH while working full time. Dr. Choma has been instrumental to the project's success through his efforts in facilitating the multi-institutional faculty effort focused on creation of the on-line course, and his efforts coordinating the initial offering of SURPH (Summer Undergraduate Residency in Public Health). The on-line introductory public health survey course was developed over the first academic year of the award, through the cooperation of faculty members from K-State, Dodge City Community College, Johnson County Community College and Kansas City Kansas Community College. The course curriculum was based on that recommended by Riegelman et al in The Educated Citizen and Public Health: A Consensus Report on Public Health and Undergraduate Education (CCAS, 2007). An expert in mediated distance education assisted the faculty group by creating a style book, by ensuring that the material created meets accessibility standards, and by assisting with development of flash cards, case studies and video features. In Fall 2009, the introductory course is being offered to 36 students by Johnson County Community College (22 students enrolled) and Kansas City Kansas Community College (12 students enrolled). In Spring 2010, the course will be offered by K-State. Dodge City Community College is making plans to offer the course through Edu-Kan, a consortium of six western Kansas community colleges. SURPH was offered in summer 2009 in a format that combined in class review of introductory course modules with field experience, because the introductory course that will serve as a pre-requisite for SURPH (described above) was not available until Fall 2009. The SURPH experiences of six students were fully supported by scholarship funds from a Kansas Health Foundation award to K-State. The participating students' field experiences included on-farm assessment of pre-harvest food safety, creation of media and messages to promote safe food handling practices, shadowing of K-State Extension Agents engaged in public health nutrition, a tour of the veterinary diagnostic laboratory, and a physical environment tour with an expert on promotion of physical activity. PRODUCTS: We developed a new on-line public health survey course offered at community colleges and K-State University. Course-associated products include: On-line style book; 7 Course Modules; Student Study Guides; Public Health Mystery Cases. The second major work product is the new summer undergraduate residency experience focused on public health (SURPH). OUTCOMES: 42 students from 2 community colleges and K-State University were exposed to public health content and careers during their undergraduate educaton. We have established ongoing collaborative interactions among faculty members from three Kansas community colleges and the state land grant university DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We have created printed materials and website to promote the introductory course and SURPH. We have publicized the course to regional groups, particularly community college and medical school faculty members and administrators, and members of the public health workforce. FUTURE INITIATIVES: Development of the final deliverable, a 5 year BS/MPH program, will begin in the coming grant year. Other future initiatives include plans to recruit additional community college partners and plans to create a SURPH type experience for place-bound community college students.
Impacts
Coummunity college students and K-State undergraduates are learning about public health, public health careers and the importance of human, animal, environment interactions.
Publications
- Hai-Jew, S. 2009. Structuring a Local Virtual Work Ecology for a Collaborative, Multi-Institutional Higher Education Project (A Case Study. Accepted as a chapter for publication in Communication, Relationships and Practices in Virtual Work
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