Transforming Public Health Education in the Digital Age

Higher education has long relied on academic models of teaching, evaluation, and research that offer structure and continuity. However, the conditions in which these models operate are rapidly evolving. We are living amid a compounding polycrisis shaped by climate change, political polarization, widening inequities, and artificial intelligence  (arguably, a classic example of a commercial determinant of health, driven by corporate interests) that is redefining how knowledge, work, and social responsibility are understood in our social contract. These challenges exceed the capacity of technocratic solutions alone and expose the limits of siloed disciplines that fragment complex social problems into manageable but incomplete parts. This moment invites educators to reflect on and reimagine how teaching and learning can evolve to better prepare students for ethical leadership and systems-level change.

To that end, this project responds to that invitation by imagining an expanded approach to teaching and learning — one that moves beyond preserving existing structures toward cultivating adaptive, ethical, and systems-oriented thinkers. Rather than asking only how education can maintain established standards, it asks how curriculum design, assessment practices, and teaching styles might evolve fundamentally to better prepare students to navigate uncertainty, challenge the status quo, and lead meaningful systems change.

The first phase reimagines curriculum design, spanning courses, assessments, and teaching approaches, through a praxis-oriented lens. Through a structured approach to curriculum design and delivery, it embeds employability, integrative practice-based learning, and authentic assessments (that connect course content to job market skills), while intentionally bridging students’ lived experiences, course content, and evolving career aspirations. Central to this work is an ethically reflexive engagement with AI, inviting learners and educators alike to consider not only how (or why, for that matter) AI is used, but how it reshapes the metaphysics of learning, knowledge production, and professional responsibility.

This framework is currently being finalized and will be released publicly as a Practice Brief (similar to our other outputs) intended to support educators interested in translating these principles into institutional and classroom-level change.