Video-conferencing in a health economics course with alumni in healthcare and partners abroad

This chapter describes the use of video conferencing to connect students with their peers studying health care economics in other countries, and also with alumni who work in the field. Video-conferencing technology will be an increasingly important mode of engaging in the policy and health care administration space, and these assignments prepare students to interact meaningfully when they have to navigate conversations with people who have unique relationships to health care economics. The chapter outlines assignment frames that organize students’ video conferencing interactions by preparing them beforehand and processing with them after the video calls. The chapter identifies pitfalls in video-conferencing assignments and strategies to work around those pitfalls. It discusses the moments when limitations are likely to arise, such as the limitations related to vocabulary differences when talking with people who have learned health care systems with a different foundation of vocabulary for the same concepts.