# Penn, Social Systems, and the Community: fostering equity-focused public health practice through asynchronous learning

## TL;DR

This paper describes a course designed to train public health students in addressing systemic inequities through asynchronous learning.

## Contribution

The paper introduces an innovative asynchronous course addressing structural inequalities in public health education.

## Key findings

- Students felt the course prepared them for public health practice and community engagement.
- Students gained knowledge on working with diverse populations and strategies to address inequities.
- Course revisions are underway to improve focus and include broader perspectives.

## Abstract

Penn, Social Systems, and the Community (PSSTC) is a semester-long, non-credit, asynchronous course designed to prepare the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) Master of Public Health (MPH) students for community engagement by analyzing how historical and systemic inequities impact public health. As a prerequisite for the Applied Practice Experience (APE), PSSTC addresses a key pedagogical challenge in public health education: providing foundational training on structural inequalities and their influence on public health practice. The curriculum includes nine online modules and four synchronous discussions covering topics such as racism and other forms of oppression, social determinants of health, implicit bias and microaggressions, transformative justice, and the role of UPenn itself in these broader systems. A post-course survey was administered and respondents agreed that the course prepared them for the applied practice experience and other public health work. Students also reported gaining knowledge and practical strategies for working with diverse populations. Suggested improvements included condensing content for more focused learning and incorporating broader perspectives from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and religious populations. In response, course revisions are ongoing to streamline content and ensure alignment with the evolving public health landscape.