Design and assessment of a public health course as a general education elective for non-medical undergraduates

Although public health programs among undergraduate students have been increasing and gaining popularity worldwide, few studies have focused on the needs and structure of public health courses for non-medical students. This study aimed to design a public health course as a general education elective for non-medical undergraduates at Nankai University, one of China's leading multidisciplinary and research-oriented universities. Students' feedback on the course was collected and analyzed after the completion of the elective course. We designed and developed the course under the general education elective course at Nankai University. The course includes four segments: (a) Public Health Fundamentals and Population Research Methods; (b) Chemical Safety and Health, (c) Diet, Nutrition, and Health, (d) Immunology, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases, spanning 34 class hours (with 6 class hours designated for a flipped classroom format). The teaching content was divided into five parts: (1) Health and Medicine Knowledge, (2) Public Health Knowledge, (3) Public Health Methodology and Philosophy, (4) Proper View of Health Issues, and (5) Values Education. Students' feedback after the course indicated that Diet, Nutrition, and Health was the most interesting segment, and the students considered basic biological or medical knowledge to be more important than other public health knowledge. A problem-based learning model was implemented for flipped classrooms, and we found that the problem-based learning questions were not only helpful for students' knowledge construction but also for educators in understanding and managing the learning expectations of non-medical students. We believe that the lesson may guide other institutions in designing similar curricula.