Academic Outcomes Following Implementation of Case Scenario‐Based Teaching in Postgraduate Health Promotion Education: A Repeated‐Cohort Study, 2019–2025

ABSTRACT Issue Addressed Case scenario‐based teaching (CSBT) is used to support applied and contextualised learning in health promotion education, but evidence on academic outcomes across successive cohorts is limited. Methods This repeated‐cohort observational study examined de‐identified secondary data from 765 postgraduate public health students at the University of Wollongong, Australia, between 2019 and 2025. Cohort differences were assessed using chi‐square tests, Welch's analysis of variance with Games–Howell comparisons, generalised linear models with robust covariance estimates and adjusted binary logistic regression. The 2019 cohort was treated as the reference cohort. Results Most participants were female (72.9%), aged 24–29 years (53.2%) and international students (62.1%). Mean total marks differed across cohorts (Welch F (6, 297.95) = 17.19, p < 0.001); Games–Howell comparisons with 2019 were significant for 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, but not 2022 or 2023. After adjustment for gender, age group, enrolment and delivery mode, cohort year remained associated with total marks (Wald χ 2 (6) = 35.20, p < 0.001). Grade distribution also differed by year ( χ 2 (24) = 218.63, p < 0.001). In the adjusted Distinction/High Distinction model, cohort year was significant overall (Wald χ 2 (6) = 22.98, p < 0.001), although only the 2021 contrast with 2019 was individually significant. Conclusions Academic outcomes varied across successive cohorts in a subject using CSBT, and several later cohorts had higher total marks than the 2019 reference cohort after adjustment for measured student characteristics. Because this was a repeated‐cohort observational study with concurrent curriculum and assessment changes, the findings describe temporal associations and do not establish a causal effect of CSBT.