The Challenges of Global Health (Coursera)

Offered by Duke University,
The Challenges of Global Health (Coursera)

What are the world’s major health challenges? What contributes to them? What can we do to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities? Whether you are new to Global Health, want to take a refresher course, or want to sample Global Health before undertaking undergraduate or graduate study in the field, The Challenge of Global Health is designed to provide a comprehensive but concise foundation for understanding Global Health problems and solutions.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Taught by Dr. David Boyd, an award-winning professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, the course combines lectures with videos shot around the world and interviews with some of the world’s foremost Global Health experts.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Getting Started
Start here!

WEEK 2
Basic Concepts in Global Health
This module covers some of the most important basic concept that you need to know to understand global health. In particular we will focus on key terminology and the determinants underlying health and disease.

WEEK 3
Understanding the Key Global Health Challenges
This module focuses on examining the causes and distribution of infectious disease, noncommunicable disease, injury/violence/disaster, and MCH (maternal and child health).

WEEK 4
Actors & Action: Finding Global Health Solutions
This module explores the main global health actors, how they work, and what strategies they use to improve global health outcomes and to solve global health problems.

WEEK 5
The Future of Global Health
This module examines the changes that we expect to occur in global health in the near future and what strategies will best help us to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers (Coursera) Coursera
Yale University

Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers (Coursera)

This course is designed with a singular goal: to improve the care you provide to your patients with substance use disorders. By delving into a model case performed by actors, seven Yale instructors from various fields provide techniques to screen your patients for substance use disorder risk, diagnose patients to gauge the severity of their use, directly manage treatment plans, refer out to treatment services, and navigate the various conditions that may limit your patient’s access to treatment.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy (Coursera) Coursera
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy (Coursera)

Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy offers an overview of the latest research findings and international recommendations on a variety of nutrition-related aspects and outcomes of pregnancy. Ensuring a healthy nutritional status and lifestyle prior to and during pregnancy is one of the best ways to help support the healthy growth and development of the unborn child. We will look at how a healthy diet and lifestyle should ideally be achieved prior to conception and provide recommendations for pre-conception counselling of women.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Opioid Epidemic: From Evidence to Impact (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Opioid Epidemic: From Evidence to Impact (Coursera)

While prescription opioids serve an invaluable role for the treatment of cancer pain and pain at the end of life, their overuse for acute and chronic non-cancer pain as well as the increasing availability of heroin and illicit fentanyl, have contributed to the highest rates of overdose and opioid addiction in U.S. history. Evidence-informed solutions are urgently needed to address these issues and to promote high-quality care for those with pain. This course and the report it is based on are a response to that need. They offer timely information and a path forward for all who are committed to addressing injuries and deaths associated with opioids in the United States.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life (Coursera) Coursera
University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life (Coursera)

Learn how the nervous system produces behavior, how we use our brain every day, and how neuroscience can explain the common problems afflicting people today. We will study functional human neuroanatomy and neuronal communication, and then use this information to understand how we perceive the outside world, move our bodies voluntarily, stay alive, and play well with others.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
In the footsteps of Zika… approaching the unknown (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

In the footsteps of Zika… approaching the unknown (Coursera)

Welcome to this on-demand MOOC “In the footsteps of Zika… approaching the unknown”. This MOOC has been produced by Université de Genève Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Descartes and Centre Virchow-Villermé. With the help of the intervention of faculty members and international experts, we will explore together the recent Zika phenomenon, a previously rare benign virus that recently turned unexpectedly into the limelight when on the 1st of February 2016 it was declared by the WHO as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
International Women's Health and Human Rights (Coursera) Coursera
Stanford University

International Women's Health and Human Rights (Coursera)

This course focuses on women’s health and human rights issues from infancy through old age, including information about positive interventions relating to those issues. Learners are encouraged to interact with each other through interactive discussions. It is important to us that this course be available to all learners. We encourage you to apply for Coursera's financial aid (see link to left) if the cost of the course certificate is difficult for you to afford. Please note that you may view all materials in this course, and participate in it, without purchasing a certificate.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale (Coursera) Coursera
University of Barcelona

Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale (Coursera)

Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks