On Friday, January 22, the new teaching fellows for Professor Sue J. Goldie’s foundational global health course, “World Health: Challenges and Opportunities,” gathered for a virtual orientation. Most of the teaching fellows are doctoral or master’s students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and bring diverse work and teaching experience to their roles with the course, which is offered as an undergraduate class through the General Education program at Harvard College.
Professor Goldie kicked off the meeting with an overview of the course, highlighting how the curriculum was adapted to facilitate a dynamic virtual learning environment. Blending both asynchronous and synchronous sessions, the course is designed to provide student with greater flexibility during pandemic while still equipping them with a broad conceptual foundation for critically thinking about population health in a global context.
The orientation was led by Mia Blakstad, Head TF of the course; Nina Bhattacharya, Instructional Design Specialist at the Incubator; Terry Aladjem, Senior Scholar in Residence at the Incubator; and Elizabeth Hentschel, Global Health Pedagogy Fellow at the Bok Center and Incubator. Beyond sharing an overview of teaching in the Gen Ed program, the course staff also dove deep into a typical week for teaching fellows—from developing inclusive section norms to assessing student participation.
The teaching fellows will meet weekly throughout the semester to discuss course content and pedagogical approaches introduced by Professor Goldie, iterate section plans, support each other’s teaching efforts, and more. They will also work with Incubator staff to pilot innovative approaches to virtual teaching and learning that can translate across classrooms and disciplines.