Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World: Educator Resources

We reflect on our experience co-teaching a medical humanities elective, “Pandemics and Plagues,” which was offered to undergraduates during the Spring 2021 semester, and discuss student reactions to studying epidemic disease from multidisciplinary medical humanities perspectives while living through the world Covid-19 pandemic.

Pandemic diseases have had far-reaching impacts on the story of our species. From the Spanish flu to smallpox, widespread illnesses have changed the course of history and toppled civilizations. Even today, epidemics have a major impact on travel and world commerce.

Students Read About an Early Pandemic and Create a Timeline

UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Education has introduced curriculum materials for teaching about Covid-19 through the EPIC Learning site. The materials were created as a part of the Responding to an Emerging Epidemic through Science Education project.

Since the first confirmed case in January 2020,1 the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has overwhelmed health care systems in many parts of the United States and fundamentally altered graduate medical education (GME).

Readings on the history of quarantine, contagious disease, viruses, infections, and epidemics offer important context for the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As we outline in our new research study released in January [2022], the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ academic achievement has been large.

The coronavirus outbreak is far from the first pandemic humanity has faced, yet living through such a historic event still leaves us grasping for understanding. How do we make sense of our experiences? What will it mean for us, our communities and our society looking into the future?