Course partnership promotes student success and future employment

A course being offered in Spring 2019 will provide students a strong foundation in research skills and public health content that will benefit them across a wealth of disciplines as well as in their employment after graduation.

Dr. Amanda Haberstroh, Laupus Library

HLTH 4050: Research Skills in Health Information will be taught by Dr. Joseph Lee, assistant professor in the College of Health and Human Performance’s Department of Health Education and Promotion; and Dr. Amanda Haberstroh, librarian liaison in Laupus Library. The course covers skills that are vital to student success and is beneficial to students in disciplines across the Health Sciences Campus.

“This course covers important pieces of health literacy and evidence evaluation and will give students strong skills in the PubMed/MEDLINE database,” Lee said. “It’s a one-credit class and would be a great course for any student interested in attending graduate school or for future health profession skills. It would also be a great course for students early in their career at ECU who are interested in research.”

The class will meet from 1 p.m.­–1:50 p.m. on Wednesdays.

The value in the course is based not only in its content but in its unique teaching arrangement.

“This partnership between a librarian and faculty members in Health Education and Promotion as equals really highlights the importance of the interdisciplinary skills that our students need,” Lee said. “Employers want our students to have expertise in health literacy, information literacy and concrete searching skills combined with public health content expertise. We’re excited to continue the course with Laupus’s support and Dr. Haberstroh’s expertise.”

Leah Cordova, MLIS, in Joyner served as the embedded liaison librarian for past sections of HLTH 4050 and was instrumental in creating this course. The teamwork has resulted in instructional topics that improve students’ competencies in finding and evaluating information and evidence-based practice.

Students have echoed that sentiment; some who have completed the course said that it expanded their knowledge on research and “made a difference in my current classes.” Others said the course encourages discussion, during which they ‘learned to apply course material in practical ways.”

HLTH 4050 helps bridge gaps between what students are learning and processing and how to think critically in terms of seeking out knowledge through research.

“We know these information literacy skills are incredibly important for our public health students and to their future employers,” said Dr. Don Chaney, chair of the Department of Health Education and Promotion, “and our partnerships with Joyner and Laupus combine our faculty’s public health expertise with librarians’ expertise in health literacy, evidence-based searching and information skills.”