# Foundations for Public Health ## expand\_more Since 2015, incoming T.H. Chan School of Public Health students have been introduced to public health through an orientation course originally conceptualized, developed, and taught by former Dean Julio Frenk and Dr. Sue J. Goldie. The course aims to establish a solid foundation for graduate students' education, experiences, and engagements over the academic year. Since its inaugural year, the course has been reimagined by Professor Goldie and formally transitioned to an online summer course in 2019, concluding with an in-person class during orientation week. Professor Goldie extensively revamped the course in 2024 to meet new accreditation requirements for schools of public health and, with GHELI, augments the course each year to better explore core concepts as they relate to rapid changes in public health in the present moment. Learn more about the course design and Professor Goldie’s approach to teaching an online foundational course in this [featured news story](https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/in-foundations-of-public-health-course-the-creative-sparks-fly). --- ### Creating an Inclusive Virtual Environment “This course is a laboratory for designing and integrating multimodal learning experiences into conventional curricula.” – Sue J. Goldie Throughout the summer, students watch video lessons organized into four modules. Videos are filmed with two camera angles that simulate a familiar in-person lecture experience alongside the use of visualization and graphic learning. Using conceptual diagrams helps students organize material into a coherent structure, while the process of drawing allows for information to be presented one step at a time. Watch the first video of the course as Professor Goldie asks, “What do we mean by “Health”? and explores the different definitions of health and the advantages and disadvantages of each using images and a simple framework. Another style of short-form video lessons used are introductions to reading assignments with guided questions from Professor Goldie. In this video, two narrative articles from *The New York Times* are assigned to provide a more nuanced understanding of public health issues compared to clinical studies alone. GHELI has piloted how to teach, model, and practice deliberative empathetic “listening” and ”perspective sharing” through pedagogical techniques like storytelling and lesson framing. [Watch an excerpt from the in-person orientation week](https://vimeo.com/1119820196/b6aa84426f?ts=10000) where Professor Goldie emphasizes to her students the importance of learning from narratives in public health education and policy development. All video lessons are supported with interactive quizzes or “knowledge checks,” sketch notes of the drawings to promote understanding, and curated resources from GHELI’S digital repository, like this [Public Health Resource Pack](https://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/collection/resource-pack-public-health/). --- ## Visual Tools and Techniques Over the years, students have expressed interest in learning more about how the course was designed, the techniques behind pedagogical choices, visual learning, and multimedia approaches, and how to develop and apply creative methodologies to their learning and professional experiences. We developed a [teaching pack](https://gheli.harvard.edu/repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/collection/teaching-toolkit-visual-tools-and-techniques/), which contains seven individually curated guides. It includes tailored resources and tips for data visualization, “drawing to learn” techniques, design elements, images, and icons, word clouds, and infographics, “mind mapping” techniques, taking sketch notes, and a collection of recommended and low-cost sketch supplies.