PH207x: Health in Numbers & PH278x: Human Health and Global Environmental Change - 2012-2013 Course Report

Abstract

In the 2012-2013 academic year, the first two Harvard School of Public Health courses were offered through HarvardX on the edX platform: PH207x: Health in Numbers and PH278x: Human Health and Global Environmental Change. They were taught by Professors Earl Francis Cook and Marcello Pagano, and Aaron Bernstein and Jack Spengler, respectively. This report describes the structure of these two courses, the demographic characteristics of registrants, and the activity of students. This report was prepared by researchers external to the course teams and is based on examination of the courseware, analyses of the data collected by the edX platform, and interviews and consultations with the course faculty and team members.

Keywords: MOOC, massive open online course, HarvardX, MITx, online learning, distance education, higher education, public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, climate change