NextGenU.org Summary
org Master’s Degree in Public Health Program Overview
NextGenU.org is essentially the world's first free university (we're for credit, for free, unlike any other
organization). Starting with a focus in the health sciences, our accredited courses span from college-level pre-
health sciences and community health worker trainings through public health graduate training and
MedSchoolInABox (codeveloped with Stanford, U of Toronto, and U Central Florida).
We now have over 5,000 registered users in over 200 countries and have just released the first globally free
degree: a Master’s degree in Public Health.
This educational system is not a set of Massive Open Online Courses -- rather, courses are competency-based
and include online knowledge transfer, a web-based global peer community of practice, skills-based
mentorships, and a free certificate. Our accredited partners, North American universities that are outstanding in
each particular course topic, give learners credit for this training (or institutions can adopt them and use them
with their students), all for the first time ever cost-free, and also advertisement-free, barrier-free, and carbon-
free.
Erica Frank, MD, MPH, FACPM
Founder & President, www.NextGenU.org
EFrank@NextGenU.org
Founded in 2001, we globally launched our first full course in March 2012, Emergency Medicine (EM) for
Senior Medical Students, a typical academic-organizational collaboration for us, created in partnership
with Emory University's WHO Center for Injury Control, the International Federation of EM, and the Society of
Academic EM. Now extending our MedSchoolInABox into Graduate Medical Education, we will enroll our first
residents (in Preventive Medicine, in Texas) in July 2018. As explained in more detail in the link, we are
developing the Preventive Medicine Residency with the American College of Preventive Medicine, CDC,
European Lifestyle Medicine Organization, Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard, Stanford Medicine, WHO,
and others to create the first globally available Graduate Medical Education.
And finally, NextGenU.org has a sustainable business model. We have a $16 million endowment (from the
Annenberg Physician Training Program) that covers many core expenses, and receive additional grants and
contracts to create, test, and disseminate trainings from governments (e.g., $1.4 million from Grand
Challenges Canada, CDC), quasi-governmental organizations (e.g., NATO Science for Peace, WHO),
universities, foundations, professional societies, individual benefactors, and our biggest donors -- our volunteer
course developers, advisory groups, and mentors, and the millions of experts who have generously shared
their learning resources online. All together, these provide an unprecedented opportunity for globally
democratized education and for the creation of an immediate, sustainable, and permanent transformation of
health sciences education and -- on an ongoing basis -- a domestic and global supply of millions of public
health leaders and other health professionals and health workers.
NextGenU.
NextGenU.org has developed the world’s first free degree: the Master of Public Health (MPH). It is based on
competencies from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), the Association of
Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), and the Public Health Agency of Canada
(PHAC). The program is structured to fulfill accreditation requirements from the Council on Education for Public
Health (CEPH) if an institution is interested in pursuing future accreditation. All components of the MPH (like all
NextGenU trainings) are free, including free registration, learning, testing, and granting of a degree and
diploma on completion. The degree is currently in final review with the Graduate Council and Faculty Senate
of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, where it is being used as the foundation for
Graduate Medical Education (an also-globally and freely available Preventive Medicine Residency).
All NextGenU.org trainings are reviewed and endorsed by our global academic, governmental, and
professional partners and use existing, expert-created, published competencies addressed by publicly posted,
screened educational resources exclusively from governments, peer-reviewed journals, universities, and
specialty societies. All courses are online and include engaging, skill-building, mentored and peer activities for
students to address skills-based competencies and create global communities of practice. To create this MPH,
we have collaborated with leading organizations including the American Association of Public Health
Physicians, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, American College of Lifestyle
Medicine, American College of Preventive Medicine, Association for Prevention Teaching and Research,
College of Dietitians of British Columbia, European Lifestyle Medicine Organization, Grand Challenges
Canada, Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Simon Fraser University and the WHO’s
Virtual Campus for Public Health.
All program components can be coordinated through the NextGenU learning platform, either for learners
directly or for institutions adopting this MPH program (or for both). Knowledge acquisition is computer-based,
done by asynchronously studying learning resources from academic, governmental, professional society, and
peer-reviewed journal sources. Local and/or remote peer and mentored activities fulfill other competencies that
address skills, behaviors, and attitudes.
For each course that students take in the MPH program, there are practice quizzes in each module, and at the
end of each course students will complete a (free) final exam. Trainees must also satisfactorily complete the
required peer- and mentor-guided activities. There is minimal financial investment and environmental impact
for both learner and institution, as there is little physical infrastructure or faculty and administrative time and
resources required.
Core courses: Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, Social and
Behavioral Sciences
Sample electives: Case Analysis and Research Methods, Climate Change and Health, Community-Oriented
Primary Care, Global Health, Knowledge Translation, Maternal Health, Oral Public Health, Program Planning
and Evaluation, Public Health Leadership, Public Health Nutrition, War and Health
MPH E-version
 Characteristics NextGenU Characteristics NextGenU Unique NextGenU
shares with traditional shares with Massive Open characteristics
universities
Credit ("away elective")
Online Courses
Free For credit for free
NextGenU.org
Customizable Limitless scalability Competency-based

Thorough assessment
Higher-level education
Human interactions
Warm prestige
Low risk Strong & varied resources The first globally free and accredited courses in
Low barriers Financial efficiency Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and other
Low carbon emissions Time efficiency
health sciences
Computerized interactions Multiple languages

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Active education partners Become part of the world’s first free degree:
Coordinated curriculum a Master’s Degree in Public Health
Asynchronous

Tested efficacy

Open research policy

U Missouri Emergency Med Scores

http://www.nextgenu.org/pages/about.php

SFU Environmental Health Scores SFU student satisfaction with

Environmental Health courses

These published data demonstrate identical knowledge gained with

NextGenU.org's Emergency Medicine course vs. traditionally trained medical
students (at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (Bethesda, USA)
and the University of Missouri (USA)), and identical knowledge gained and greater
student satisfaction with NextGenU's core public health course in Environmental Students registered from >200 countries
Health vs. traditionally delivered courses (at Simon Fraser University, Canada). http://www.nextgenu.org/course
/view.php?id=206#2