Global Women’s Health Education: Inclusion, Collaboration, Impact
Describe below the context of your / the project team’s approach to enhance teaching and learning
Following strategic discussions with the Education Dean, I identified a critical gap in the 51cg’s postgraduate provision: there was no dedicated course addressing women’s health as a standalone field, despite growing global and policy emphasis on gender equity in health. Existing online courses cover health topics generically and rely mainly on asynchronous delivery, limiting engagement with lived, contextualised women’s health challenges. I therefore led the development of Women’s Health in a Global Setting, the only postgraduate course at the University explicitly focused on women’s health.
The course features collaboration with clinicians and researchers from universities in Cairo and Nepal, alongside partner institutions and experts across Africa and Southeast Asia, embedding decolonised and culturally responsive pedagogies. Its key innovation is the structured integration of weekly live hybrid sessions led by internationally recognised women’s health experts. Unlike other online offerings, this approach enables real-time international dialogue, applied policy discussion, and comparative case analysis across diverse sociocultural contexts, aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the University’s 2040 Strategy.
Provide below a description of the project and either briefly describe your role as an individual and, if applicable, the role of all other stakeholders involved in the project; or briefly describe the roles of all named above
Women’s Health in a Global Setting explores how gender inequality, cultural norms, and health systems shape women’s health outcomes worldwide. The project centres on a single teaching innovation: the use of structured, weekly live global expert sessions to transform online learning from content delivery into interactive, practice-informed engagement. These sessions are integrated into course design, assessment preparation, and discussion activities.
I led the project’s design, curriculum, assessment, and delivery. I coordinated international clinicians, academic colleagues, learning technologists, and programme teams. International partners provided real case examples and live teaching from their health systems, while learning technologists supported accessibility and hybrid delivery.
Teaching methods include expert-led videos, facilitated live discussions, applied case analysis, and reflective assessments. Since 2020, enrolment has increased from 22 to over 120 students from 18+ countries. The model was adapted successfully for a Qatar cohort in 2025, demonstrating scalability while retaining pedagogical integrity.
Give below a rationale for your / the project team’s teaching approach or new initiative
The course was developed to address a specific pedagogical limitation in existing online postgraduate teaching: the lack of structured opportunities for students to engage directly with real practice. This is especially important in women’s health, where outcomes are shaped by cultural, political, and systemic factors that cannot be fully explored through static online materials.
To address this, I introduced a weekly live global expert teaching model as the central innovation. These sessions enable students to engage directly with clinicians and researchers working in diverse international contexts, supporting application of theory to real policy and practice challenges. This approach contrasts with other online courses at the University, which rarely incorporate live international contributors as a core teaching element.
The course was intentionally adaptable. In 2025, it was adjusted for Qatar-based students with locally relevant case discussions and facilitation methods. Students said the course provided “real-world context,” and external examiners noted it “sets a benchmark for inclusive, internationally informed women’s health education.”
Provide below details of how your / the project team’s new teaching approach or solution has been / will be disseminated with colleagues and students within and beyond the University. Is the approach transferable to other disciplines?
The course’s global teaching model has been widely disseminated both within and beyond the 51cg. Internally, I presented the approach at the Aberdeen Centre for Women’s Health Research Away Day(2022), International Women’s Day events (2023–2024), and the Academic Development Symposium (2025), focusing specifically on how live global engagement enhances online learning beyond standard asynchronous delivery.
Externally, I shared the model through invited talks and conference presentations, including at Ain Shams University(2024), demonstrating how international clinicians can be embedded into online postgraduate teaching. Partner institutions, including Cairo University, have adopted elements of the live expert and case-based approach within public health curricula.
Public dissemination further extended impact. In a national television interview (That’s TV Scotland, 2021), I discussed the need for dedicated women’s health education and innovative online delivery. Course materials have informed CPD provision and are being explored for adoption at Al-Mansura University, evidencing transferability across disciplines and institutions.
Identify below the key learning points - what have you / the project team learned from this initiative and how has it further enhanced you / the project team’s practice?
Feedback from students and external examiners showed that the course’s live global sessions were its most valued feature, but they needed clearer links to assessment. To address this, I revised assessment guidance, tied live-session themes directly to marking criteria, and added preparatory and follow-up activities to support learning.
Working with international contributors improved my ability to facilitate culturally sensitive dialogue and manage diverse perspectives online. Adapting the course for the Qatar cohort required
structured discussion guidelines and revised case framing, showing that the model must be flexible rather than fixed.
I also learned that inclusive participation does not happen automatically online. Adding clear facilitation roles, multilingual resources, and straightforward expectations helped engagement across time zones and cultures.
Students described the course as “unlike other online modules,” and examiners praised its pedagogical value. These lessons have shaped my wider teaching and strengthened my leadership in global education.
Explain below how you have / the project team has evaluated the impact or influence of your initiative
The impact of the global expert teaching model was evaluated using enrolment data, course feedback forms, external- examiner reports, and a university three-year review. Enrolment increased from 22to126 students across 18+countries, expanding from a single MPH module into four Master’s programmes, postgraduate certificates, and CPD offerings through an on-demand programme.
Student feedback consistently identified the live global sessions as the most valuable and distinctive element, describing them as “unlike any other online module” because they connected learning directly to real clinical and policy practice while enabling interactive international dialogue. External examiners commended the innovative structure and inclusive design.
The model was successfully adapted for 30 MPH students in Qatar (2025), requiring modifications to suit cultural and policy contexts while maintaining core outcomes. It also strengthened international collaboration with Cairo University. Institutionally, I am working with the University to develop a proposed Master’s in Women’s Health, in which this course will form a core module, demonstrating strategic impact and sustainability.