Development of an online global health certificate for healthcare professionals

In our globalized world, it has become necessary for everyone working in public health or in healthcare to develop the skills to address global health issues. There is a need for an inexpensive and accessible graduate-level program to educate working professionals on key global health topics. To meet this need, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has developed an Online Global Health Certificate Program. This presentation describes the planning, developing, testing and improving this program. A team of global health and distance education experts, community partners, and student representatives was formed to review market research to determine the intended audience, the appropriate curriculum, the most accessible format, and the best content experts for the materials. Based on this, curriculum topics were ranked according to need, faculty members were identified across multiple departments, and a piloting and evaluation process was developed. The curriculum was finalized in 2007 and courses were piloted in 2008 and 2009. Quality improvements were conducted as a result of the pilot evaluations. Student recruitment began in 2009 and the certificate is planned for launch in fall 2010. This presentation will describe the work team, the market research instruments and results, the ranking process of the content areas, the criteria used to select content experts among the faculty, and marketing strategies for the first cohort. Special emphasis will be on lessons learned and on how the student evaluations from the pilots of each course were used to improve the courses and the curriculum.