Course Syllabus
Healthy Ageing in 6 Steps: Let your environment do the work
Index
1. Introduction
1.1. Learning objectives
1.2. Course activities and resources
1.3. What we expect from you
1.4. What you can expect from us/the course team
2. Course structure & Release dates
3. Assessment & Deadlines
4. Certificate
5. Credits & colophon
1. Introduction
Many health complaints, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes or joint problems seem inescapable diseases of old-age, but originate mostly from our lifestyle. A lifestyle that is dictated much in part by our environment. The mismatch between our 'old' genes - our evolutionary heritage - and the 'modern' environment is the reason that we cannot resist the constant stimuli that seduce us to make unhealthy choices. Do's and don'ts cannot help us.
This health course will take a radically different approach to showing you how to secure a lifestyle, which will keep you healthy through the ages. We have to let the environment do the work for us. By making small changes at our home, work, school or neighborhood, healthier choices can become easier or even unconscious.
Practical assignments will give you the skills to re-design your daily environments to promote healthy, longer lives for you and your family, colleagues and neighbors with whom you share your re-designed environments. You will learn how to create your own healthy living zone!
We will take you on excursions to Copenhagen, Denmark and to Ghent, Belgium to show you hands-on how the environment can help you live longer, healthier and happier lives!
This self paced course is presented on the edX platform. Would you like a brief overview of how to navigate the edX platform? Please watch an instruction video of the main elements of an edX course. If you feel like you need a more in-depth orientation, head to the edX Demo Course.
1.1. Learning objectives
With this self paced course you will:
- Understand how the current ageing process is different from the ageing process of the past;
- Gain insights on how your lifestyle and environment is influencing your health and ageing process;
- Understand the importance of the environment in the ageing process;
- Re-design your daily environment to nudge yourself and other people to healthy choices;
- How to advise policy makers on the health impact of day-to-day public environments.
1.2. Course activities and resources
This is a self paced course with an estimated workload of 2 to 3 hours per week, holding several learning activities and educational resources for you to study. The course is organized in a consistent way so you know what to expect in each week.
- Videos that explain the course concepts and show daily life examples.
- Multiple choice questions to test your understanding of the topics.
- Discussions where you can post and debate ideas with the learning community.
- Map activities where you can share your own context in a global and interactive way.
- Extra reading & references to deepen your understanding of the topics. You may come across some scientific articles as sources, which are not open accessible. Accessing most of the scientific journal articles will be difficult for all of us without academic connections. We have tried to add open source references if possible.
1.3. What we expect from you
As an online student we expect you to be an active participant, contributing to a positive atmosphere by questioning, sharing and helping out others.
The multiple choice questions in each week have only one final deadline. However, we recommend you complete them on a weekly basis and that you keep on track in order to benefit from learning within a community.
We'd like you to experience collaboration and peer feedback, so please make sure you follow with other participants in order to enrich the overall learning experience. When communicating with your fellow learners make sure you take into account the Communication and Collaboration guidelines.
1.4. What you can expect from us/the course team
This course is self paced and we encourage you to respond to each other on the discussion boards. If you have posted a question, also try to at least comment to someone else’s response. Our moderator is only partly available for questions on the contents on healthy ageing.
2. Course structure & Release Dates
Getting started
Before you dive into the course topics we invite you to meet the instructors, introduce yourself in the world map and get to know your global colleagues! Please take some time to read this syllabus. It contains important information about the course, what to expect form it and what we expect from you, the weekly structure, type of activities, assessment and certification.
Module 1. Old genes in a new environment
In this week we will first look at how people used to age in the past. We will share the insights of our 9 years of field work in rural Africa, in the upper east region in Northern Ghana. Next we will look at how different people age in our modern environment, characterised by low levels of physical activity, high levels of calorie-rich food, by chronic stress from our 24 hour economy and the changed rhythm of wake and sleep that accompanies that. Our modern environment makes us ill.
Module 2. The medical reflex and the alternative
And when we become ill, we visit the medical doctor. In what we call the medical reflex, he or she treats the symptoms of our unhealthy lifestyle with pills. This seems like putting the cart before the horse. Why wait till our lifestyle makes us sick and then correct the symptoms with pills instead of fixing the problem, the lifestyle? We will view ageing and age-related diseases as emergencies in slowmotion: Just as deadly as acute emergencies, but they take twenty years instead of twenty seconds from the first symptoms to death. This means there is a window of opportunity to steer away. But not by telling people what to do.
Module 3. From conscious to unconscious health behaviours
We have been told for thirty years that what we should and should not do to remain healthy up to higher ages. The trick is to maintain the healthy behaviour in the long term by integrating it into daily routine. We have been told what to do, but our bodies don’t want to and never will. We can try to control our body with our brain, by telling it not to eat too much chocolate every day. But this is not very fun nor very effective, especially in the long run. In this module we consider an alternative, what if these healthy options could become easier, maybe even automatic, unconscious. We will review how, although we like to think of ourselves as conscious, rational individuals, many of our choices our much more influenced by the environment than we think.
Module 4. Hacking everyday environments
In this module we look at some common environments. We will start with the home environment and review how redesigning our kitchen can change the way we eat. We will study how changes in the bedroom can make us sleep better. Next, we will look at working environments. How can you convert your office into a place from which you gain health instead of one that increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes? And how can the workers canteen be employed as a place to promote a healthy diet?
Module 5. In the neighbourhood, public environments and transits: the case of Copenhagen
In this module, we will look at the neighbourhood and the public environment and transits, How can small changes in the neighbourhood promote social contact with neighbours? How can a city seduce its inhabitants to use the bike more instead of the car? And how do we get more people on bikes to work? We will take an in depth look into Copenhagen, a city that has dedicated itself to become to cycling capital of the world. They have not told anyone that they should bike more often, instead they have created an environment in which biking is the most easy, cheap, fun, accessible and fastest way to get from A to B in town.
Module 6. A new public health
In the previous module we studied the case of Copenhagen. When promoting health in a radical different way, not by building hospitals and employing doctors but by converting a city in a cycling city, large investments have to be made in infrastructure. This requires a holistic view on public health, health that is not delivered only by doctors and hospitals financed by the ministry of health but also by the train company that facilitates commuting part of the trip by bike by providing easy bike-access to platforms and facilities for taking bikes on trains. Although such investments do not pay themselves back directly through increased revenues from train tickets, their substantial health benefits and reduced sick leave benefits create a net positive return on these investments. In this module we consider a new public health, one that emphasizes healthy populations instead of sick individuals.
3. Assessment & Deadlines
To complete this course you have to score at least 50% in total. All multiple choice questions are worth the same and count for your final grade.
Although we recommend completing the questions throughout the course on a weekly basis, before the next week starts, the course has only 1 final deadline since the course is self paced: August 1, 2019, 23:59 (UTC).
4. Certificate
Generating an ID verified certificate
Verified certificates will be issued a few days after the end of the course, to all participants who achieved at least 50% of the total grade. Certificates can be downloaded from your Student Dashboard (look for the Download button next to the name of our course).
If you have enrolled for a verified Certificate of Achievement you can generate your own certificate at any time after you have qualified to pass the course. To qualify for a certificate, you must achieve a total grade of 50% or higher. You can check your grade at any time under the course’s Progress page. An ID verified Certificate of Achievement is available for $49. You can Upgrade on your edX Dashboard to Verified during the course.
To request your certificate, select "Request Certificate" on the Progress Tab. After that, you can download your certificate directly from the Progress Tab, or from your Student Dashboard (look for the Download button next to the name of our course).
For more information on how to generate and download your certificates, explore edX’s documentation on how to generate your certificate.
Remember, you have until 1 August 2019 at 23.59 UCT to finish all the modules and tests.
Once produced, a certificate cannot be reissued, hence it is very important that you verify the way in which your name appears. Check that, in your edx.org account, your name is correctly spelled, since it will appear on the final certificate. Please note that no Honor Code certificates will be given out by edX for this course.
5. Credits & colophon
Photographers: Saskia van Osnabrugge, David van Bodegom, DISSING+WEITLING architecture, Lars Engelgaar / Medical Museion, Lab van Troje / www.labvantroje.be / www.leefstraat.be, Jan Dirk van der Burg / www.jandirk.com/olifantenpaadjes.html, plantwithpurpose.org, Leyden Academy, Bev Sykes from Davis, CA in the USA, Easysteppers.nl, EIT Health
Stock photography and video: iStock.com
Copyright free photo’s and illustrations were used from: Pexels.com, Commons.wikimedia.org, Google.com, Google Earth, Flickr.com, Pixabay.com, www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=44556&picture=old-couple-in-parkfrom
Illustrations: Tijs Koelemeijer / info@tijskoelemeijer.com
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LICENSE
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