1. Home
  2. Peer Review: Health Equity & Social Justice in the U.S.

Peer Review

Health Equity & Social Justice in the U.S.

Reviewed:

Jul 10, 2026 by Health Sciences
Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.8 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 4.8 stars
Ease of Use: 4.8 stars
Overview:

This material is an open sharing of a course portrait from California State University, Long Beach. 

HSC 407 Health Equity & Social Justice in the U.S. Brief Description of course highlights:  Explores social determinants of health associated with health inequities in the U.S. Students will learn about historical and current social justice and ethical issues affecting positive health outcomes and access for diverse and vulnerable populations.

Type of Material:

  • ePortfolio
Recommended Uses:

  • This is best used by educators at the collegiate or graduate level to provide more open educational resources at little to no cost to current and future students. This pilot demonstrates how and why finding these resources helps ensure lower costs for students and access to more personalized, timely, and up-to-date information on a specific topic or topics. 

 

Technical Requirements:

  • Internet Access
  • Web Browser
Identify Major Learning Goals:

  • The user will explore the open portrait of a Health Equity and Social Justice course at California State University, Long Beach.
Target Student Population:

  • College Lower Division, College Upper Division, College graduate school
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

  • Basic computer search skills are needed, as finding open educational resources that are current, up to date, and relevant can take time and attention to detail. 

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The syllabus is clearly laid out with all of the pertinent information.
  • The matrix provided guides the reader not only to understand what to read, but also to the time involved for any videos.
  • There are links for the open education resources provided, and also where to find them, i.e., directly from the website or through the school library, so there is no floundering by the reader. 

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

Having the best practices spelled out is very beneficial for someone who is just starting to explore open educational resources. This allows the novice to understand that there is help available through the library and other technical personnel.

Having open educational resources, especially as spelled out in the matrix, is informative for students and helps them see the concept from multiple angles, not just one textbook or article.  This can be used in a variety of ways to reach students through different learning styles as well, as there are links to articles, textbooks, videos, and web pages.

Concerns:

  • Library dependency – Some articles/videos are free only through the CSULB library. Users of the material would need to assess for library availability and access.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Navigation was easy
  • Alt text was used for images
  • Sequential headings were set up for screen readers.
  • Attached files used SmartLinks or ordinary text

 

Concerns:

  • Book links were in https format; recommend using SmartLinks or ordinary text for links
Other Issues and Comments:

  • This provides educators with a brief introduction to how and why to introduce or increase the use of open-access resources for courses at the collegiate level and above. It provides a real-world example with lessons learned that can be shared with colleagues to promote further use, reduce costs for students, and provide updated information in various ways. 
Creative Commons:
creative-commonscreative-commons by