Engaging Guest Speakers and Recognizing Their Valuable Contributions to Public Health Classrooms: Process Evaluation of a Pilot Program to Provide Thank You Gift Cards to Guest Speakers

Abstract

Guest speakers introduce students to diverse perspectives, share relevant experiences that reinforce course content, and demonstrate how skills and knowledge that students are learning can be applied in public health practice. Providing a monetary thank you gift is one way to recognize the valuable contributions of community-based guest speakers to students’ learning. We describe the implementation and evaluation of a departmental pilot program to offer gift cards to guest speakers. During the 2022 to 2023 academic year, instructors could request a $100 gift card for one guest speaker outside of the university community per course per semester. We evaluated the program to assess the process for distributing gift cards, instructors’ reasons for inviting guest speakers, and students’ perceptions of guest speakers’ contributions to their learning. Data were collected through tracking spreadsheets, an online survey to instructors, and anonymous student course evaluations. Thirty gift cards ($2525 covered by the department) were distributed. Evaluation findings indicate that the program is a feasible way to engage diverse perspectives in the classroom and share applied examples and professional development with students. Specific recommendations that we implemented in the continuation of this program include allowing flexibility in the number and denomination of gift cards, streamlining the process for requesting and distributing gift cards, and providing communications to facilitate consistent and clear information sharing. The Guest Speaker Thank You Gift Program complements and extends the diversity, equity, and inclusion work of the department by supporting the expansion of perspectives shared in classroom and directly acknowledging guest speakers’ contributions.