Exercises - PH 453: Information Management

In addition to a variety of learning activities, there are 3 instructor-evaluated activities associated with PH 453: (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 453, which is provided in the following chapters in the text Public Health Administration: Principles for Population-Based Management (Novick and Mays, eds; Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2001):
  2. What kinds of information is a public health manager likely to have to manage? What problems are they likely to encounter?
  3. Briefly describe at least three key criteria for evaluating a particular management information system.
  4. Describe three or more key components of public health surveillance systems.
  5. Select one information system used for public health surveillance and describe its purpose, data sources, capacity to support program evaluation and hypothesis testing, and accessibility to key users (including Internet implications).
  6. Identify and briefly describe at least 5 important public health duties that rely on public health information systems.
  7. After reviewing the fictitious case study, Immunization Tracking System, identify three important lessons from what happened in Boon County (not a real place). Are any of these lessons applicable to the public health organizations serving your community and your state? Explain

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 453 Individual Exercise" as the title of your submission.

Reviewing the case, Developing an Integrated Public Health Information System for Missouri, identify three important lessons from what happened in Missouri. Are any of these lessons applicable to the public health organizations serving your community and your state? Explain.

(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 453 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.

As the public health administrator providing consultation services to government, you will be responding to a request from the Director of Safety. You should base your response on concepts derived from the readings for this course as well as the summary information provided on Surveillance Project Management and on Project Scheduling. Then, as directed in the memo, (a) create an arrow diagram and calculate the time to complete the surveillance project and (b) identify how you would accomplish the need to accelerate the project completion time by 10%. Submit your response to these questions after reviewing any available submissions from 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 453 Exercises last revised June 30, 2005 (dkapadia)