Postgraduate - UnitHSC5022 - Evaluating public health programs

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Alfred Hospital Second semester 2015 (Day) Alfred Hospital Second semester 2015 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Associate Professor Ben Smith

Synopsis

Program evaluation can provide valuable evidence to improve the delivery, reach and impact of public health strategies. This unit will equip students with skills to evaluate disease prevention and health promotion strategies using a range of methodologies. Levels of evaluation will be examined, including formative, process, impact and outcome evaluation, and the range of qualitative and quantitative methods suitable for answering different evaluation questions will be identified. The complementary roles of different methodologies will be highlighted, with consideration given to approaches that will facilitate learning for practice. There will be exploration and discussion of the evaluation challenges posed by the complexities of public health action and the contexts in which it is carried out.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Distinguish between levels of evaluation recognise how these are linked to program plans;
Select qualitative designs that are appropriate for different evaluation questions;
Identify the range of quantitative study designs that can be employed and the strengths and weaknesses of these for different strategies and contexts;
Describe methods to measure indicators at all levels of evaluation;
Develop survey questions and interview guides that demonstrate an understanding of measurement quality;
Develop a comprehensive evaluation plan;
Discuss the steps entailed in evaluation management.