Exercises - PH 445: Evaluating Public Health Programs

In addition to a variety of learning activities, there are 3 instructor-evaluated activities associated with PH 445: (1) complete the individual exercise; (2) participate in a multi-learner conferencing exercise; and (3) complete and submit the assessment quiz. Each of these is explained below.

Learning Activities (Note: these ARE NOT to be submitted!)

A series of individual learning exercises for this module are provided below. Completing these exercises will familiarize you with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that relate to the competency expectation for this module that is described above. Note that learners are not required to submit written response for these learning exercises. Completing these exercises, however, will prepare you for components of this module that are assessed and scored.

1. Review the basic content for PH 445, which is provided in the following online resources:
   • Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health (also available in PDF)
   • Introduction to Evaluation
   • Methods for Evaluating Community Initiatives
   • WK Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook (large PDF file!)
2. Briefly describe the key steps for conducting an evaluation of a public health program.
3. Describe the major criteria used in public health program evaluation.
4. Develop a definition of evaluation that would be appropriate for public health.
5. Describe several limitations to using randomized experimental designs for program impact evaluation?
6. Describe the major developments in the history of conducting evaluations.
7. Identify at least two conditions under which it might not be advisable to conduct an evaluation.
8. Identify at least three types of evaluations and, for each type of evaluation, state an evaluation question that typifies that type of evaluation.

Evaluated Activities (Note: these ARE to be submitted!)

(1) Individual Exercise

Each learner will submit a brief response to the following exercise. Produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 445 Individual Exercise" as the title of your submission.

Based on what you know about evaluation designs, develop a sound bite that you can use with various stakeholders that answers the question "How can you prove our prevention program worked?"

(2) Conferencing Exercise

Add your contributions to this multi-learner conferencing exercise. Produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 445 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.

The following is a request for assistance:

In our community a consortium has developed a set of recommendations and an implementation plan with the goal of reducing adolescent pregnancy, and reducing births to adolescents. Community representatives on the consortium identified system-level changes that are needed in various areas, such as with the schools and managed care organizations. The action plan represents a comprehensive prevention strategy designed to address the complex factors contributing to adolescent pregnancy. One of the strategies will be a public awareness and education campaign to increase awareness of issues related to adolescent pregnancy and its prevention. The campaign includes a media campaign and an educational offering that provides family-life education for parents.

We would like to evaluate the effect of the media campaign and the educational offerings. What type of evaluation design will enable us to know whether or not these interventions had any effect on the target audience and on reaching our goals? Submit your recommendations after reviewing any available submissions by other learners.

(3) Assessment Quiz

Follow the LearningSpace link to the Assessment Quiz. You may be asked for your login ID and password to access the quiz through your Preparedness Center Personal Page. Complete the quiz and submit your responses. You make take the quiz several times.

Course Evaluation: All learners are asked to electronically complete a Course Evaluation Questionnaire; this is available to you as an electronic form and will be transmitted to a data base without your identity being known, and your instructor will have no way to link your identity to your comments. Before participating in these course evaluation activities, students should review the specific learning objectives established for this course (and others you may have taken as part of this series); these are available in the Syllabus. Evaluation of the course should focus on the extent to which these objectives were achieved.

PH 445 Exercises last revised June 30, 2005 (dkapadia)