Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

Student-Centred Outcomes of an E-learning Course on Public Health in Hanoi and New York

Bach Xuan Tran^1,4*, Quyen Le Thi Nguyen^2,4, Vuong Minh Nong^1,4, Rachel Marie Maher^1,4, Anh Tuan Nguyen^1,4, Huyen Anh Nguyen^1,4, Cuong Tat Nguyen^1,4, Huyen Phuc Do^3,4, Hoa Thi Lai^1,4 and Huong Thi Le¹

¹Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam

²School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

³Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam

⁴Health Economics and Policy Research Alliance (HEPORA), Vietnam

Corresponding Author:

Bach Xuan Tran
Lecturer in Health Economics, Hanoi Medical University
Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health
1 Ton That Tung, Hanoi, 10000, Vietnam
Tel: 084982228662
E-mail: btran.hmu@gmail.com

Received Date: April 12, 2014; Accepted Date: May 15, 2014; Published Date: May 20, 2014

Citation: Tran BX, Nguyen QLT, Nong VM, Maher RM, Nguyen AT, et al. (2014) Student-Centred Outcomes of an E-learning Course on Public Health in Hanoi and New York. J Community Med Health Educ 4:288. doi:

Copyright: © 2014 Tran BX, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: We evaluated the satisfaction and improvement in learning outcomes of students taking a distance course in Public Health facilitated by the Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Hanoi Medical University and the State University of New York at Albany.
Methods: A total of 36 students participated in pre- and post- course surveys online. We developed the Vietnamese E-Learning Student Outcomes Profile (VESOP) to evaluate the impact of distance learning methods on students’ learning outcomes.
Factor analysis was applied to construct the measure items into five domains: Academic Skills, Intellectual Abilities, Interactions, Responsibility and Educational Engagement. Multivariate regression models, selected using stepwise approach, determined factors associated with changes in students’ learning outcomes. Student satisfaction with the course was assessed by determining their willingness to participate in and pay for future distance learning courses.
Results: The students showed moderate improvement in “Interactions” and large improvements in the other four domains. Factors associated with improvements included previous academic performance, English proficiency, ease of access to the internet and computers, and time spent studying. All students passed the course, all would be willing to take another distance learning course, and 26 students would be willing to pay for such as course with certification.
Conclusions: Findings of this study highlight the potential of distance learning as a complementary educational method that could greatly benefit Public Health students. It encourages and supports the development of such training programs for Public Health students in Vietnam.

Keywords