First published on May 14, 2015 in observance of the COPH’s 30^th anniversary celebration.

Long before the deluge of online learning became a given of modern education replete with a glut of overnight “universities,” USF’s College of Public Health launched a distance-learning presence that was formidable before online classes even existed.

From 1990-93, 45 state health department employees in Tallahassee earned master of public health degrees from USF via the old-fashioned method of distance learning.  Every Tuesday, a COPH professor would journey to Tallahassee to teach a three-hour course that evening, said Dr. Charles Mahan, at that time state health officer, and later COPH dean.

Dr. Charles Mahan

“We gave them Tuesday afternoon off, and they gave up their evening,” Mahan explained.  “One professor would come up for a month and do the whole core segment of epidemiology and biostatistics, and then somebody else would come up and do the whole core of community and family health.

“When people in practice throughout the state at the health departments saw what we were doing up there, they came to the college and said, ‘Please, do that for our staff.’  That’s when we began the distance-learning program.”

Technology offered a more efficient means by 1994, when COPH began beaming public health courses via satellite to 33 host sites at state and local health departments across Florida.

Answering a mandate

“USF College of Public Health had a very good partnership with the Florida Department of Health,” recalled Sandhya Srinivasan, COPH director of educational technology and assessment, “and through this partnership, we were able to deliver public health education while utilizing health department meeting space and satellite equipment that was already part of the Florida Department of Health satellite network.  We were able to piggyback on that and beam our classes to busy health professionals.”

Sandhya Srinivasan, MPH, MEd

WUSF-TV had an uplink facility, Srinivasan explained, which enabled COPH to buy satellite time at the discounted educational rate.  The telecasts were cabled to the uplink facility in Clearwater, then beamed to the satellite from there.

As part of the founding of the college a decade earlier, USF and COPH had a legislative mandate to train public health employees statewide, Srinivasan said.  A needs assessment at the time signaled the need when it found that very few public health workers had had any formal public health training.

“They had come to public health through medicine or nursing or sociology, but they were not trained in public health,” she said, “and so the college had a huge challenge in front of it.”

Two evening courses were initiated to meet that challenge, she said.  Each met once a week for three hours, and each had an on-site technical point person should the satellite or any link in the technology fail.  Technical and material needs were communicated via phone or fax in those days before the advent of personal computers and e-mail.

Given those limitations, early growth was slow, but within a few years, the need for more courses and faster, easier means of delivery coincided well with the PC age.  In 2001, Srinivasan said, technical advances and growing interest in the program sparked its rapid expansion.

“We started incrementally,” she said, “moving our classes from satellite to a blended online-and-satellite format.”

The Department of Education weighed in with a $3-million grant for instruction in technology.  That IIT grant, as it was known (standing for Innovations in Technology and Training), enabled the college to hire instructional designers who brought in multi-media components that completed the transition from satellite-online hybrid to a fully online operation.

From online courses to online degrees

With all classes delivered entirely via Internet, geographic limitations were gone.  Anyone, anywhere could take courses on the World Wide Web, and host sites were things of the past.  It wouldn’t be long before the state’s first public health college conferred the state’s first fully online public health degrees.

According to figures supplied by David Hogeboom, statistical data analyst for COPH, the online degree program has conferred 383 MPH degrees in various concentrations since spring 2001.  The total represents more than one-fifth of all MPH degrees and more than one-eighth of all degrees awarded by COPH in that timeframe.  Srinivasan said nine students graduating on Dec. 13, 1998, from the Public Health Practice program were the first to earn their degrees via satellite.

COPH distance learning’s first nine MPH graduates made headlines in 1998.

“Today, in addition to public health practice, we have five other master’s concentrations online and 11 online graduate certificates,” Srinivasan said.

Unlike other classrooms, the virtual variety requires technical design specifically geared to disseminating educational materials.  Accordingly, full-time instructional designers are a big part of the picture at COPH online.

“Our office consists of six full-time instructional designers and a graphics designer,” Srinivasan said.  “The designers are assigned to particular courses and work hand-in-hand with faculty in preparing course materials and assessments.  They are able to parse down a lesson to bare essentials and match the right technology that can deliver that content efficiently to the students.”

Today’s COPH online learning team.  Back row, from left: Thomas Reilly, James Taylor, Andres Abril, Carlos Montoya, Samantha Lopez.  Front row, from left: Ana Vizcaino, Jung Lim, Sandhya Srinivasan, Trudian Trail-Constant.

Srinivasan said one of the concerns the designers address is interaction.

“It is less than ideal to listen to a talking head for three hours, so we use different types of interactive technologies that enable and even encourage student interaction,” she said.

Much of that interaction involves typed responses, she said, but even that is rapidly changing.

“As part of Canvas, the learning management system at USF, we now have access to an interactive virtual tool called Blackboard Collaborate.  Students and instructor log in at a given time and date, and the tools within that virtual classroom allow for interaction.  Students and faculty are able to interact via audio, video and whiteboard tools to do everything they could do in a traditional classroom.”

Alison Oberne, MA, MPH, CPH, an instructor in the USF College of Public Health, narrates a lecture for an undergraduate public health course using the recording space in COPH used for recording content for the lectures and modules of most of the college’s online degree programs.

It doesn’t take an instructional designer to appreciate the brightness of COPH’s online future.

When the college launched its online master’s program, Mahan said, deans at other colleges of public health told him it would never work.  In fact, he said, deans from the older schools of public health at revered institutions like Harvard and Johns Hopkins flat-out swore they would never do it.

“Now, of course, they all do it,” he said.  “Absolutely, we were the first to do it.  We were a couple of years ahead of everybody else in offering the full MPH by distance.”

“The tools from the beginning to now have undergone tremendous change,” Srinivasan said.  “We are committed to remaining on the cutting edge, so the future of our program will be wherever virtual classroom technology will allow us to go.”

Story by David Brothers, College of Public Health.

The post College of Public Health a pioneer of online learning appeared first on College of Public Health News.

Until just a few months ago, the people of Masala, Kenya, had no potable water.

“They would have to walk seven miles to get drinkable water,” said Oddi Diaz, a USF College of Public Health videographer in the Office of Educational Technology and Assessment.

Diaz, who has been with the COPH for just over a year and who earned his undergraduate degree in digital cinematography from Full Sail University in Orlando, visited Masala for 10 days last October with his friend, David Alfonseca, president of Maranatha Kids International, a Christian nonprofit relief organization that has done work in Kenya.

“Before the availability of potable water, the people would collect water from dirty ponds—when the ponds had any water at all,” Diaz noted. “But we were able to erect a water-collection tank and run 1,000 meters of pipe from the structure to a compound where people now come to get water once or twice a week. When you see those smiling faces watching their containers fill with water, that’s priceless.”

Developing a viable system for clean drinking water was just one agenda item for Diaz and fellow volunteers during their time in Masala, an area of the world that Diaz says has many challenges.

“There are no jobs there, no source of income,” Diaz explained.

In addition to laying pipes for the water project, Diaz and fellow volunteers replaced termite-ravaged beams in the community’s church while also adding a concrete foundation.

Diaz—who’s been to Africa 10 times now on a variety of charitable missions—raised money for the trip with private donations from friends, family and congregants of the Pinellas Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church in St. Petersburg. All in all, $7,000 was raised for the service projects and travel expenses.

Diaz has plans of returning in the summer to work on a much-needed orphanage.

“The region has more than 50 percent of its population suffering with HIV/AIDS,” he explained. “Many of the women are widows who do not have the resources necessary to provide for their children, so they abandon them on the street. As such, there are hundreds of orphans in the community. The goal is to bring as many volunteers as possible to help us build the shelters and other infrastructure the Masala community so desperately needs.”

Story by Donna Campisano, USF College of Public Health

The post COPH videographer takes passion for public health to Kenya appeared first on College of Public Health News.

Three USF College of Public Health staff members, Alana Falcone, Carlos Montoya, and Andres Abril, were recipients of the 2017 Outstanding Staff Awards. Their achievements were celebrated at a ceremony in the USF School of Music Concert Hall held in March.

Each year USF selects staff and administration employees who demonstrate a commitment to the pursuit of excellence and is hosted by President Judy Genshaft.

Three of this year’s 69 honorees were COPH staff members.

(From left) Andres Abril, Alana Falcone and Carlos Montoya, the COPH’s 2017 USF Outstanding Staff awardees. (Photo by Anna Mayor)

“I am extremely honored to have received this award, especially knowing that it was my coworkers who nominated me,” said awardee Alana Falcone, who was working as an academic program specialist in the COPH’s Undergraduate Studies office at the time of nomination.

“This award is reassurance that I am making a positive impact on the COPH and is motivation to continue to strive and meet my future goals and accomplish upcoming tasks within the college. I absolutely love the environment that I work in!” she said. “I feel the College of Public Health has such a collaborative and impressive team that it makes working truly enjoyable for me. Everyone is extremely helpful and I appreciate getting to work with so many people in all different departments throughout the college.”

Falcone joined the COPH in 2014 as a temporary employee, eventually becoming a staff member in 2015. She now works as an administrative specialist to coordinate COPH special events and provides administrative coordination for college wide projects.

“I enjoy being able to use my creativity and imagination in what I do on a daily basis. I love envisioning something and seeing it come to life!” she said.

Annette Strzelecki, assistant director of academic advising for the COPH, is one of four colleagues who nominated Falcone.

“Alana understands that all the work done is ultimately to help the students and better the university. She embraces supporting our community through recruitment, student engagement, and assisting our instructors,” Strzelecki said.

Falcone was also nominated by Dr. Kay Perrin, associate dean of academic and student affairs.

“Alana’s contributions impact USF by her wonderful customer service and welcoming smile.

She is known to give maps to anyone (students, families, staff) and get up from her desk and walk outside to give specific directions to parking lots and buildings,” Perrin said. “Customer service goes a long way in recruiting and retaining students.”

Carlos Montoya, instructional multimedia developer in the COPH’s Office of Educational Technology and Assessment (ETA), said that when he’s at work he feels like he’s at home with family.

He joined the COPH in 2014 and works to develop online courses with multimedia components, ensuring they are aligned with research-based best practices for education. He provides pedagogical strategies to faculty teaching online and on-campus and is a classroom technology consultant, creating e-learning courses with cutting-edge multimedia technology.

“I get to enhance the learning experiences for students and meet their learning needs, while trying to reduce faculty’s workload. I also enjoy the challenges and that I can utilize my creativity and expertise to find solution to those challenges,” he said.

Montoya’s ETA colleague, Andres Abril, was also a recipient of this year’s award.

Abril joined the COPH in 2012 and he assists faculty with designing and developing distance learning courses, while collaborating with on-campus organizations to explore and design new innovated approaches to web-based learning.

“To be the recipient of this award is not only an unbelievable experience but also a great honor and privilege,” Abril said. “I get to work with an amazing group of instructional designers, faculty and leadership. As colleagues, we collaboratively transform and enhance our courses to provide the highest classroom and online quality education to our students.”

Dr. Jaime Corvin, assistant professor of global health, nominated Montoya and Abril.

She said they both played a vital role in guiding the transformed MPH core curriculum at the COPH.

“They transformed traditional lectures into interactive and dynamic presentations that fostered improved educational quality and outcomes both online and in-class,” Corvin said. “In the process, they changed how many faculty look at technology in the classroom – from clickers to online integration.”

She said both Montoya and Abril embody the mission of USF’s focus to provide high quality education.

“They allowed us to rethink class time and enhance the quality of online education. We are better educators and our students are better served because of them,” she said. “With the innovation of Carlos and Andres, I no longer question the value of online learning. Through their leadership, we envisioned what we do online and developed interactions that mirror the in-class environment. Their courses are richer, more interactive and of the highest quality I have ever seen.”

Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health

The post Three’s a charm for the USF Outstanding Staff Awards appeared first on College of Public Health News.

The USF College of Public Health’s Sandhya Srinivasan, director of the Office of Educational Technology and Assessment (ETA), has been appointed as chair of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s (ASPPH) Learning Futures Forum.

ASPPH created the Learning Futures forum, open to faculty and staff from ASPPH-member schools and programs of public health, as a way for those working in public health education to collaborate and discuss trends in the rapidly growing field of online education.

“I think it’s valuable to know what other schools and programs of public health are doing in the field of online learning,” Srinivasan said. “It is important to constantly assess and reassess our practices so we are delivering the best possible education to our students.”

The COPH’s ETA office oversees all aspects of the technology in online courses for programs across the COPH. Since 1996, Srinivasan and her team of seven instructional designers and one graphic designer, have assisted faculty with course development as they transition traditional courses for delivery to an online audience.

Sandhya Srinivasan, MPH, MEd. (Photo by Natalie Preston)

Srinivasan will lead members of the Learning Futures Forum as they respond to and adapt to rapid growth in online learning, as well as changes to CEPH accreditation criteria, according to Emily Burke, manager of data analytics for ASPPH.

She will hold this appointment for two years.

The first forum meeting under Srinivasan’s leadership is scheduled to take place at the 2017 ASPPH Annual Meeting, March 17 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.

“It’s a good exchange of information,” she said. “It’s a way to understand the technology and in this case, understanding how technology impacts the new CEPH criteria, so that we are all on a level playing field; it’s very helpful.”

According to Srinivasan, every accredited school of public health that has membership with ASPPH is asked to send a facilitator or distance learning coordinator to attend these distance learning forums, something she said the COPH’s ETA office has participated in for the past several years.

“I’m hoping with each chair, the forum is reenergized and starts to scope out an agenda that is useful to all schools and programs of public health,” she said. “We’re hoping with the webinars and new criteria this coming year, we will have a good amount of interest in being an active participant of the committee.”

Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health

The post Alumna Sandhya Srinivasan appointed chair to ASPPH’s Learning Futures Forum appeared first on College of Public Health News.