Abstract:

Open education is a practice that facilitates free access to learning materials and the sharing of educational resources and methods. The open pedagogy entails a teaching and learning methodology that involves students in the creation of knowledge. Utilizing open pedagogy in facilitating open education, a Social and Behavioral Health (SBH) faculty member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and his team have been implementing monthly webinars among prospective graduate scholars and existing graduate scholars for the past two years. At present, the total number of participants in this group is 42, of whom about half are prospective scholars, and some prospective scholars have enrolled in SBH at UNLV. One such prospective scholar who joined the doctoral program this year shares her experience of this monthly webinar, which entails presenting studies for each monthly webinar by the students, regular completion by scholars of master's and doctoral research skills checklists developed by the faculty member, discussions facilitated between existing and prospective students about the programs and other research studies, sharing of anecdotal research experiences by students and the faculty member, and participation in SBH professional papers, theses, and dissertation presentations. The resources, including E-content developed during the webinar, are freely shared with all participants. This model and pedagogical approach can be replicated to enhance recruitment and capacity building of graduate students by other programs in public health and other disciplines.

Keywords:

Open education, open pedagogy, public health.