Well, another African American Health course is completed and I had another great, fantastic and fast-paced time teaching this online course! Now that this African American course is established during the Summer 1 session (mid-May-end of June), I have re-worked much of the lecture material to make sure students recognize the major themes that I feel are important to remember from this course. Although there is so much health and medical issues to cover in such a short period of time on African American health, I primarily emphasized the cultural health patterns that cuts across a vast majority of these African American health disparities issues.
In this class, students did an excellent job in completing their assignments (discussion board, midterm, final exam, fieldwork projects/proposal) and participating in the chat sessions. The major advantage in teaching this course online is that I can provide students with the latest and most current research documents or video documentaries on all aspects related to African American health. This year was no exception because of all the new national health care initiatives being implemented, I was able to introduce these issues to the class and students responded through their assignments.
Here are some of the EXCELLENT and OUTSTANDING FIELDWORK PROJECTS/PROPOSALS from this African American Health course – MPH 6005 – Summer 1 – 2010:
Stress and Coping Skills amon African Americans
Obesity and Its Effects on the Black American Community
Patients Beliefs and Behaviors about Breast Cancer Screening
Knowledge and Attitude of Diabetes among African American Women: A Qualitative Fieldwork Project
A Proposal to Conduct a Study on the Perception of African Americans in Wake County NC of HIV/AIDS and STDS
Barriers to HIV Testing in African Americans
African American Women and HIV
Accessing the Perceptions of Healthy Eating and Availability of Healthier Food Choices in the African American Community
African American Mental Health Disparities
An Examination of the Disparities of Hypertension within the African American Community
An African American Male’s Insights and Perspective on the Health Status of His Fellow Brothers
As with all of my courses and particularly with this African American Health course in which I actually developed in the early 1990s, I am very pleased how students are very committed to learning more about this particular topic. Each year, I learn something new from my students and I hope also that students learn something new from me as I further make changes to this course each and every year! It was fun, engaging, fast and I can’t wait for next years class in 2011!