COURSE STRUCTURE

The full syllabus, including course schedule and list of readings, can be found here.

This is an active learning course, which means that you will engage directly in learning process. Engaging with the material will facilitate your ability to learn about theory and meet the learning objectives of the course. The primary aim of the course will be to engage students in applying theory to deconstruct how a public health intervention achieves its target, theoretically. To do this, you will be assigned two teams to work with over the course of the semester: Case Study Teams and Theory Teams. 

Case Study Teams: Students will be assigned in groups of five to six to a case study intervention to apply theories at graduating levels of influence. Students will identify constructs and posit associations amongst these constructs that could plausibly explain how the intervention could work. At the end of the semester, each case study team will be required to prepare a presentation of the final conceptual model developed for their case study.

Theory Teams: Within each case study team, students also will be assigned a Theory Team. The Theory Teams will be responsible for working together to understand your assigned theory for graduating levels of influence to inform what theories and/or constructs your Case Study Team chooses to apply. Prior to meeting with your Theory Team, you will individually complete a pre-worksheet in preparation of developing this resource.

Using a jigsaw approach, students will spend class time in both Theory Teams and Case Study Teams to complete course assignments.

 Class meetings will be preceded by pre-class materials. These will include pre-recorded lectures, information sheets, worksheets completed by you, and other materials regarding theories at a specific level of influence. The majority of class time will be spent in teams engaged in peer discussion and teamwork. Your preparation to engage with your peers in discussions about theory and its application is essential. Figure 2 below illustrates the typical flow of work for a module (i.e., individual, interpersonal, community/organizational, and macro-social). More details about the components included in the workflow are provided in the assignments section of the syllabus. We will work with you to navigate you through this process.

Collaborative, written and oral communication skills are fundamental to effective public health practice. If you do a search for almost any job in public health, you will likely find the following phrases as job requirements: strong interpersonal skills; ability to work in a team setting; strong written and oral communication skills. The approach to this course is designed to help you demonstrate these specific skills.

COURSE MATERIALS

Readings: Journal articles and other resources will be available on Canvas.

EVALUATION

Grades are calculated using the following scale for each letter grade:

A          95-100

A-        90-94

B+        87-89

B          84-86

B-         80-83

C          70-79

F          Below 70