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About The CourseWelcome to the CoursePlus Web site for DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SAFETY INTERVENTIONS (305.613.01), a course offered by the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY 1:30-3:20PM (W4019)
This 4-credit course provides a comprehensive introduction to program design and evaluation with specific emphasis placed on the development of community-based interventions. During this course, students will be introduced to key concepts in program design, implementation and evaluation. This is not an evaluation research course. The evaluation focus is on using evaluation methods to develop evidence-informed, evaluable programs. Students will learn skills important to program development and internal evaluation; these are also essential skills for program proposal writing. This is an adult-learner focused course that prioritizes practical skill-building to enhance the student’s core public health competency level. Educational activities include: interactive lectures and class discussion; individual and peer learning group exercises for critical skills development, specifically, application of conceptual frameworks and planning tools, and peer-review of projects in-development; self-directed reading in selected program development subject area; required and recommended reading; learning reflection.
Most of the skills can be applied across many areas of public health. Students are encouraged to contribute real-world issues and challenges to discussions. The final paper offers each student an opportunity to develop an intervention program plan for a problem of interest to her/him. Several former students have gone on to implement their programs, or use them as a basis for a grant proposal. WELCOME!
Focuses attention on the importance of integrating program evaluation methods throughout the life of community health and safety interventions, from early assessments, through program planning, testing, delivery and measurement of outcomes. Also focuses on the development of practical program planning, implementation and evaluation skills that may be applied in many different areas of public health. Topics include problem definition and analysis; assessing the social and environmental factors that may impact the development, delivery, and outcomes of interventions; identifying intervention points; selecting among educational, regulatory, and technological interventions to achieve maximum likelihood of success; writing measurable program goals and objectives; designing implementation plans; and examining methods to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions.
Additional Faculty Notes:
Student feedback from previous years confirms that students who are - or will be - working to develop interventions in community or organizational settings find the course content immediately relevant to their professional lives. Lectures have a real-world focus; and address challenges faced in developing interventions for the field - often with limited resources.
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Describe, and illustrate with sample worksheets, the process required to design, implement and evaluate community health and safety interventions
- Demonstrate their ability to use selected conceptual frameworks as part of this process
- Demonstrate their ability to prioritize interventions using objective criteria
- Explain selected program evaluation methodologies
- Describe potential “unintended consequences” of interventions
- Discuss common problems encountered in evaluations
- Prepare an “intent to submit” program development proposal
- Critique a published evaluation article
Additional Course Objective(s):
2013 Course Objectives: At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe, and illustrate with sample worksheets, the process required to design, implement and evaluate community health and safety interventions.
2. Demonstrate their ability to use selected conceptual frameworks as part of this process.
3. Demonstrate their ability to develop a logic model.
4. Prioritize potential interventions using objective criteria.
5. Explain selected program evaluation methodologies (formative, process, outcome).
6. Demonstrate their ability to write SMART objectives and corresponding evaluation indicators.
7. Describe potential “unintended consequences” of interventions.
8. Discuss, at an introductory level, common problems encountered in evaluations (threats to validity, etc).
9. Prepare an effective executive summary.
10. Complete a SWOT analysis of a program proposal.
11. Identify any advanced training needs; i.e., “know what you don’t yet know”
Additional Faculty Notes:
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Previous students have found it helpful to have completed introductory-level courses in epidemiology and health education/health promotion.
student participating in the Injury Certificate and others interested in this topic area.
Additional Faculty Notes:
Intended audience:
- Students who will be or hope to be involved in developing and/or implementing and/or evaluating community programs in the USA or internationally.
- Students who plan to develop and/or implement and/or evaluate disease and disability prevention and health promotion programs in organizational settings.
Students with diverse professional interests are welcome.
The Developmental/Formative Phase:
- understanding the problem
- identifying modifiable variables
- comparing intervention options
- community assessment
- preparing logic models
- testing program assumptions
- SMART objectives
- Moving from objectives to action steps
Implementation:
- Process evaluation
- Selecting measurable indicators
- CQI
Measuring Outcomes
- Introduction to evaluation designs (non-experimental, quazi-experimental, experimental)
- Evaluation challenges
Integration and Program Improvement
- Integrated program planning
- SWOT analysis
- Proposal improvement - lessons from grant review
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