Public Health Courses
Around the world today, more than 80 million learners worldwide engage with massive open online courses (MOOCs). The tremendous reach of open online learning platforms presents a huge opportunity for massive open online public health education too!
THE GAP
To day, the vast majority of MOOCs have been created in an attempt to solve for global higher education. Only a handful of MOOCs have focused primarily on disseminating public health education and improving basic health behaviors in their audiences.
OUR APPROACH
We created four massive open online courses, on child nutrition, food and health for adults, breastfeeding and gender health. These courses currently reach more than 400,000 learners around the world and two have been repurposed for continuing medical education (CME) to support physicians in spreading basic health messages.
DISSEMINATION
Our massive open online courses are hosted on Coursera, where learners around the world can access them for free, with the option of purchasing a completion certificate if they feel this will help them in the future. Our fastest growing MOOC, Introduction to Food and Health, grows by approximately 14,000 learners each week. Additionally, we reach thousands of physician learners, who access our courses through the free Stanford Online CME platform.
IMPACT EVALUATION
Both Coursera and the Stanford Office of Continuing Medical Education gather ongoing analytics and feedback from their learner populations. We conduct evaluations using this data to ensure that our programs are having a real impact on learners around the world.
Project Videos
Stanford Introduction to Food & Health - Trailer
A Sociocultural History of Obesity and the Western Diet
Fundamentals of Nutrients and the History of Nutrition
The Spectrum of Carbohydrates - from Whole Grain to White Bread
Plant & Animal Proteins - the Building Blocks of the Body
Dietary Fats and Their Recommended Intake
Sugar & Your Health: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Michael Pollan Presents the Case for Cooking
Case Study: A Pre-Diabetic Middle-aged Man
Changing Your Eating Habits: A Step-wise Approach
Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. -Michael Pollan Explains His Mantra
Ingredients Every Home Kitchen Must Have - Cooking Fundamentals
Adding Vegetables Into Your Diet - Cooking Fundamentals
Sensible Substitutions - Cooking
Constructing a Healthy Plate
Reading Nutrition Facts Labels
The Importance of Moderation to Your Health