Breaking the Silo – Facilitating Non-Health Background Students’ Transition into Postgraduate Public Health Education

Background and Context:
Health data analytics, as a multidisciplinary field, plays a crucial role in improving healthcare outcomes, reducing costs, and advancing medical knowledge. However, many postgraduate students studying health data analytics come from non-health backgrounds and face challenges in understanding and communicating the health context of problems due to insufficient knowledge of human health and diseases. Postgraduate education builds on undergraduate foundations, requiring additional support for mature students transitioning into a new knowledge domain. These knowledge gaps hinder the development of essential public health skills and competencies and restrict opportunities for programmatic and authentic assessment.

Aim and Purpose of the Project or Initiative:
The aim of the project is to facilitate and assess the efficacy of a unit developed to provide necessary health literacy for students with non-health backgrounds, enabling them to contextualize healthcare data and transition into healthcare sector research.

Methodology and/or Innovation:
We implemented a flipped learning approach while developing the unit “Human Health and Disease Process,” emphasizing a strongly scaffolded asynchronous environment to leverage students' transferable skills. Aligning with Experiential Learning Theory, we scaffolded real-life scenarios, role-playing, and development activities of progressive complexity, using them as media for students to explore basic health literacy and pathogenesis. Content delivery was structured using a "prepare-explore-apply" methodology, aligning with postgraduate pedagogical expectations and allowing active knowledge acquisition to meet the cohort's specific needs. Programmatic and authentic assessment was integrated to reinforce learning, guided by Constructive Alignment Theory. This approach encompassed formative and summative assessments, fostering deep learning.
Student experience, particularly satisfaction with the learning experience, was assessed using the university’s formal Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) survey instrument. Students were also provided an opportunity to give additional feedback on the unit upon completion. The instrument uses a core set of eight questions answered using a 5-point Likert scale ('strongly disagree', 'disagree', 'neutral', 'agree', 'strongly agree') and is administered across all units. Students’ academic performance data were collated from the unit result managers.

Discussion Points: Key Implications and Insights Gleaned:
Preliminary analysis suggests overwhelming acceptance and appreciation of the unit for enhancing health literacy. The integration of students from diverse backgrounds into public health education can thus be facilitated.

Lessons Learned and Key Take-Home Messages:
Innovative pedagogical adaptations in public health education can significantly aid students transitioning into new areas, promoting their success and proficiency in this critical field. The project has the potential to be extrapolated to other technical areas of study, breaking the silo with the appropriate use of learning technology, assessment, and collaboration.