Job competency-oriented reconstruction of a graduate course in Environmental Hygiene: a practice-based curriculum reform and its evaluation

Background Environmental Hygiene is a core course in graduate public health training, yet its teaching remains disconnected from professional practice and dominated by lectures and recall-based assessment. We constructed and evaluated a job competency-oriented blended curriculum. Methods Interviews with 22 department heads from 16 municipal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) in Shandong Province identified core job competency requirements. The course was reconstructed into a modular “basic theory plus thematic practice” structure, supported by an online open course and an industry-informed problem-based learning (PBL) case library, and delivered through a blended flipped-classroom model with formative assessment. Because only one cohort is enrolled annually, the preceding year’s cohort (n = 68) served as a non-equivalent historical control for the post-reform cohort (n = 65); the two were comparable in age, sex, admission score, prior coursework performance, and undergraduate major. Final grades and self-rated job competency (four dimensions, 20 items, 5-point Likert scale) were compared using independent-samples t tests and χ² tests (SPSS 26.0; two-sided P < 0.05), with effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals. Results Four core job competency modules were identified: environmental health monitoring and assessment; environmental epidemiology and data analysis; environmental health risk communication and emergency management; and research innovation and lifelong learning. The course comprised 32 teaching hours, an online open course (10 chapters, 74 videos), and a 31-case PBL library. Final grades (91.6 ± 4.3 vs 83.2 ± 5.8; t = 9.45, df = 131, P < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 1.64) and self-rated job competency (4.4 ± 0.4 vs 3.1 ± 0.5; t = 16.51, df = 131, P < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 2.86) were higher in the post-reform cohort (n = 65) than in the pre-reform cohort (n = 68), with the largest difference in risk communication and emergency management (+ 1.5 points). Speaking participation was 100%; 94.3% agreed the PBL cases reflected real CDC workflows, and 91.4% reported improved self-directed learning and teamwork. Conclusions Job competency-oriented reconstruction, integrating needs assessment, modular content, blended teaching and process-oriented assessment, was associated with improved comprehensive practical competence. The largest between-cohort difference was in risk communication and emergency management, reflecting the authenticity of the PBL scenarios. As the design used a single-institution, non-equivalent historical control, these associations need confirmation in multicentre studies with concurrent controls.