Scientist and the Storyteller
Designed for students in science and public health programs, this course bridges the gap between scientific research and the distribution of important health information to the public. Students are given an in-depth look at how science journalists work: their reporting techniques, writing and producing methods, and, ultimately, how they contextualize and distribute scientific information to their audiences. Students will be taught best practices for collaborating with journalists to ensure that their research reaches the public in the most intelligible and factual ways. For students training in science journalism, this course will provide perspective into how scientists think and the way they are trained to report research findings to scientific and lay audiences. Providing an opportunity for cross-talk between these two adjacent disciplines, this class will train scientists to be better communicators and journalists to be better translators of scientific information. Co-taught by leaders in the fields of public health and journalism, this course is a practical guide for researchers hoping to extend the reach and impact of their work.
- 3 points
Health Communication
Health Communication has emerged as an important field of theory, research, and practice in the 21st century. As recognized by several public health and global health agendas, well-designed and implemented health communication interventions can have a positive impact on public health and health care outcomes, as well as contribute to advancing health equity. This course will introduce students to the field of Health Communication theory and practice, and its key action areas. It will prepare them to design, implement and evaluate health communication interventions within a systematic, participatory, engaging, process-oriented, and multidisciplinary framework that aims at behavioral, social, and organizational results and ultimately, improved public health outcomes. As health communication is grounded in many theories and principles (e.g., behavioral and social change, marketing, intergroup, sociology, anthropology, cultural-centered and positive deviance theory, mass media and new media theory, medical models, community organizing, social networks, etc.) that are also shared by other disciplines in the public health, health care, and community development fields, these theories will be briefly reviewed as part of session two in relation to their specific application to health communication theory and practice. The planning frameworks and practical exercises discussed and implemented in this course are specific to the field of health communication and provide students with core competencies and practical skills for future work in health communication within the nonprofit, corporate, academic, and government sectors both in the United States and globally.
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Instructor:
Natalie Gyenes
Info - 3 points
Applied Regression
This course will provide students with a thorough introduction to applied regression analysis, which has been a commonly used and almost standard method for analyzing continuous response data in Public Health research. Topics covered include simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, analysis of variance, parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, interpretation of estimates, interaction terms, variable recoding, examination of validity of underlying assumptions, regression diagnostics, model selection, logistic regression analysis, generalized linear models as well as discussions on relationships of variables in research and using regression results for either prediction or estimation purposes. Real data are emphasized and analyzed using SAS.
Qualitative Data Analysis
This course is designed as an advanced seminar/workshop for 2nd year master’s students in epidemiology who are seeking to strengthen their critical thinking skills and hone their abilities to effectively communicate public health content to varied audiences, for varied purposes, through scientific writing and oral communication. This course will provide practical experiences that reinforce core epidemiology skills, including data interpretation, data synthesis, and critical analysis of epidemiologic research, with an emphasis on logic and reasoning, scientific argumentation, and effective communication. Didactic lectures/presentations and course discussions will focus on identifying and appropriately citing scientific sources; making logical scientific arguments; effective argumentation; effective writing and oral presentation skills development/enhancement; identifying challenges to effective written and oral communication and strategies to address them; skills development in the peer-review process, and tailoring scientific presentations to various types of audiences and for various purposes. Students should have a public health topic or research question of interest before the start of the semester. Students who enroll in this class can be exempt from P9419, Master’s Thesis I.
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Instructor:
Silpa Srinivasulu
Info - 3 points
Methods in Program Evaluation
Increasing demand for transparency and accountability, particularly with respect to donor-funded humanitarian programs, has heightened the need for skilled evaluators. To this end, students in this course will become familiar with various forms of evaluation and acquire the technical skills necessary for their development, design and execution through lectures and discussion, exercises, guest presentations and real-world examples. Specifically, students will discover evidence-based methods for identifying stakeholders, crafting evaluation questions, designing instruments, sampling and data gathering to achieve good response rates, analysis and synthesis of information for report-writing and case studies.
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Instructor:
Vandana Tripathi
Info - 3 points
Community-Based Participatory Research
Comm-Based Participatory
Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has received growing attention over the past several decades as international, domestic, funding agencies and researchers have renewed a focus on an approach to health that recognizes the importance of social, political, and economic systems to health behaviors and outcomes. The long-standing importance of this approach is already reflected in the 1988 Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) landmark report The Future of Public Health and many other publications. The report indicates that communities and community-based organizations are one of six potential partners in the public health system and that building community-based partnerships is a priority area for improving public health. CBPR is not a method but an approach to research and practice that involves the active collaboration of the potential beneficiaries and recognizes and values the contributions that communities and their leaders can make to new knowledge and to the translation of research findings into public health practice and policy. CBPR is a collaborative approach to research that recognizes the value of equitably involving the intended beneficiaries throughout all phases of research and/or intervention design, implementation, and evaluation. CBPR is also an important approach to advance health and social equity and is essentially a way to promote and operationalize health and social equity in research settings.
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Instructor:
Renata Schiavo
h-index: 10 Info - 3 points
Advancing Health Literacy
In an age of both information saturation and stark inequities in information capital, how can public health professionals empower communities to make informed health decisions? How can healthcare providers partner with patients and communities to advance health self-efficacy, reduce barriers to equity, and repair legacies of health disparities? This course examines the concept of health literacy and its relationship to both information comprehension and health outcomes. With liberatory pedagogy as both the course teaching modality and our guiding framework, we will interrogate how disrupt power inequities and differentials in access to information through the co-creation of knowledge between health sciences professionals and the communities they serve. We will explore validated instruments to measure health literacy; its implications for empowering and communicating with the public; policies for promoting health literacy; and frameworks for developing materials for multimedia contexts. Emphasizing the necessity of advancing health literacy to create equity, we will discuss adult learning theory, trauma-informed methods for empowered health behavior and decision-making, guidance for healthcare providers, and the promotion of health-literate policies to advance a truly just and health world.
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Instructor:
Leah Hooper
Info - 1.5 points