Project Achievements:
a. Summarize the project’s major achievements, including the impact this project has had
on your teaching and on your department, program, school or college.
● 12 GSI’s and 13 faculty members signed up and completed the HEART MOOC Modules
○ Faculty departments: 1 Biostats, 1 Health Behavior Health Equity, 6 Health
Management and Policy, 1 Environmental Health Sciences, 3 Nutrition Sciences
● Conducted 1 focus group with 6 faculty members
● Conducted 1 focus group with 7 GSIs
As a result of this mixed methods evaluation, we can adapt and change the HEART MOOC
curriculum to improve the format and content to offer an improved version for a national rollout.
In the meantime, the faculty and GSIs that did go through the curriculum reported appreciating
the space the HEART MOOC gave them to think about anti-racism methods and applications in
their classrooms. The participants especially enjoyed the real-world examples that were
provided for their classrooms. The participants in the pilot were from across all the School of
Public Health departments.
We also successfully submitted abstracts and presented at 2 major public health conferences
about this work to the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Association of
Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) annual meetings.
b. How many students were impacted by this project?
Undergraduate students: 0
Graduate students: 12
While this specific grant project engaged graduate students who were teaching already in the
SPH, the potential reach and influence of this project on students across the nation is great in
number. We hope to collect better information about potential reach during the national roll out
pilot phase.
c. How many courses were impacted by this project?
one
Continuation:
This project will continue past the grant period. For now, the research team is busy revising the
HEART MOOC to incorporate the feedback from the pilot. We are also working to do strategic
recruitment and preparation for the national rollout that will be happening Summer 2025.
Dissemination:
As part of this project we have both presented and published on our process and findings:
a. 2024 ASPPH Presentation:
In March 2024, we presented the HEART Project to the Association of Schools and
Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) annual meeting. This opportunity allowed us to
showcase our progress and engage with colleagues across the field. This was our first
engagement with potential partners outside of UM and the feedback was very positive
with lots of interest for national roll out participation. We’ve attached the PDF of these
slides for those who are interested.
1. APHA Presentation:
Most recently, in October 2024, we presented at the American Public Health Association
(APHA) conference. We reported on the data we collected from pilot participants for this
event. This was another important milestone for sharing our findings and gathering
broader perspectives. We’ve attached the poster presented as well.
- Peoples, W., Creary, M., Thatcher, L., Mesa, H., Fleming, P.J. “Pilot results from
the “Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching” online training program.” (October
2025). Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health
Association, Minneapolis, MN.
2. 2025 ASPPH Presentation: In
March of 2025, Whitney, Paul, India, Chandra, & Ryan Petteway will be on an hour-long
panel titled "Health Equity via Anti-racist Teaching in Schools and Programs of Public
Health” in which HEART will be included.
3. 2024 Article:
Peoples, W., Creary, M., Thatcher, L., Mesa, H., Fleming, P.J. “Pilot results from the
“Health Equity via Anti-Racist Teaching” online training program.” (September 27, 2024).
Oral presentation at Celebrating Equity: Health Behavior & Health Equity
Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Creating a MOOC that remains relevant in a rapidly changing environment is
challenging.
● It is difficult to cater to diverse disciplines and positionalities while providing real-world
examples that resonate with all participants.
● Addressing such a large topic can be difficult to condense into an accessible format.
● Managing expectations upfront about what your project can and cannot achieve is
helpful.
● Many participants in the pilot expressed gratitude and showed great interest in the topics
covered.
