Syllabus

Schedule

Each week opens on Wednesday at 12:01 AM Eastern Time. Each week closes on Wednesday at 11:59 pm ET, with the exception of Week 8, which ends on Sunday.

Week 1: May 3 – May 10
Week 2: May 10 – May 17
Week 3: May 17 – May 24
Week 4: May 24 – May 31
Week 5: May 31 – Jun 7
Week 6: Jun 7 – Jun 14
Week 7: Jun 14 – Jun 21
Week 8: Jun 21 – Jun 25

Weekly Schedule

*See course for required and suggested weekly readings.

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Week 1: Community assessment, social determinants of health, and health equity.

Weekly Outcomes

• Define the term ‘community assessment’
• Discuss how community assessments intersect with the essential public health services
• Explain how social determinants of health and health equity are linked to health outcomes

Lectures

• Introduction to GPH 732
• Community assessments and why we need them
• Social determinants of Health 

Assignments

• Week 1 Assignment

  • Select three health conditions (those that can be diagnosed by a health care provider) and use the attached social determinants of health template to fill in the empty cells. Support your descriptions with at least one scholarly reference.

• Week 1 Discussion

  • Prompt 1: Introduce yourself to your instructor and peers. Describe any education or experience that you have with conducting a community assessment, and any fun facts about you. Include in your post the community that you will use for your final project – this could be a city, county, or census tract. (If you live in a small city, it is advisable to use the county so that you can have access to sufficient data with which to write your final project). 

    Response posts are encouraged but not required.

    Prompt 2: Using about 500 words, describe one area of health inequity in the city or state where you reside. Your post should include a strong justification for why it is an equity issue. Use data and scholarly articles to support your discussion.

    (If you live outside the US, and have limited access to data, you may use scholarly articles only.)

    Response (required): Select the post of a peer and provide a detailed critique of how well their initial post justified the selected health issue as one that relates to inequity.  Then identify at least two essential public health services that could address the inequity they identified.

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Week 2: Qualitative data collection for community assessments

Weekly Outcomes

• Collect and describe qualitative data using photography
• Describe how to identify and engage with community stakeholders

Lectures

• Qualitative data collection for community assessments
• UNE Students’ Community Assessment Project Video 

Assignments

• Week 2 Discussion: Community Selection

  • Initial Post: You are conducting a health assessment of the city in which you live. You have your thoughts as to what the major issues needing attention are, but you want to obtain feedback from members of the community since they are major stakeholders in the community assessment process. You plan to obtain feedback on their perceptions about their use of existing community resources using a qualitative data collection method. Based on the information in this week’s readings on different qualitative approaches (individual interviews, group interviews, observation, or community meetings), which ONE approach would you select and why? Support your selection using at least one scholarly source. 

    (There is no one correct answer, the goal is for you to be able to provide a strong justification for your selection.)

  • Response: Compare and contrast your post with that of a co-learner. What are the specific similarities and differences in your approaches? Describe at least one advantage of the qualitative data collection approach they selected over other approaches. Support your post with at least one scholarly source. 

• Week 2 Assignment

  • Based on this week’s reading on windshield surveys, conduct a windshield/walking survey of your community. Take at least two pictures of your key observations for each one of these five categories: housing, infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, streetlights, etc.), parks, health services, and any other category of your choosing. (You should have a minimum of 10 photographs total)

    For each photograph, develop an idea. In other words, what story does the photo tell you? You should have a total of 10 ideas. Then, group your ideas into themes. You should have a minimum of three themes and a maximum of five. Include a one-sentence description for each theme.

    (The first few pages of the document will be the pictures and their corresponding ideas, which will be followed by a table containing those ideas and their related themes.)

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Week 3: Quantitative data collection for community assessments

Weekly Outcomes

• Describe the demographic profile of a selected community using quantitative data
• Assess the incidence and prevalence of health conditions in their states using data from the CDC website
• Compare morbidity and mortality rates between different geographical locations

Lecture

• Quantitative data collection for community assessments

Assignments

• Week 3 Discussion

  • Initial Post: Create a demographic profile for your community. Use data, tables and graphs as appropriate to compare and contrast at least five demographic factors such as housing, age, race/ethnicity, employment, etc. with those of a neighboring community, state, as well as national rates. Create your post in Microsoft Word, and then copy and paste it directly to the discussion board.

    Response Post: Review the post of a peer. Select two demographic variables and compare them with the results from your community. In what ways are they similar or different? How could the similarities or differences affect a health department’s recommendations on interventions? For example, if the residents in your peer’s community are older, or wealthier, or mostly immigrants compared to yours, how could that affect the design or implementation of interventions?

• Week 3 Assignment

  • Community health profile: Write a 750-word paper excluding charts and references describing the health profile of your community. 

    Review and collect the most recent quantitative health indicator data such as disease rates, mortality rates, life expectancy, mental health and substance abuse rates, obesity rates, injury rates and other health-related factors relevant to your community.

    Create charts and graphs of your data using Microsoft Excel or any software of your choice to support the findings. Follow the AMA format for this assignment. Your paper should be double-spaced, and in size 12 font.

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Week 4: The use of maps in community assessments

Weekly Outcomes

• Identify and clean publicly available data in Microsoft Excel and QGIS
• Create a GIS map of county level data using QGIS

Lecture

• Geographic Information System maps in community assessment

Assignments

• Week 4 Discussion

  • Before you begin this week’s discussion, download data and shapefiles for the state in which you reside by following the steps listed below:

    Part 1: Download the data

    Part 2: Download the shapefiles

    Part 3: Open QGIS and take a screenshot of the QGIS home window

    Initial Post: Considering the three steps you have taken to prepare for the creation of a GIS map (downloading QGIS, downloading the data, and downloading the shapefiles), describe which step you found to be most challenging and why, using 250 – 350 words. Include a screenshot of the QGIS home window in your initial post. 

    Response Post: Review the post of one co-learner and suggest tips on what they could have done to overcome the challenge they identified. Feel free to share any helpful links or tutorials that you found.

• Week 4 Assignment

  • Start this week’s submissions by ensuring that QGIS is already downloaded to your computer:

    Download QGIS 

    Use the ‘data’ CSV file and a .shp file from the ‘SHAPEFILES’ folder that you created for the discussion post, and follow these steps to create a GIS map for the state in which you reside (If you live outside the US, use data for Maine). Submit your map as a jpeg file.

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Week 5: Prioritization of a community’s health needs

Weekly Outcomes

• Identify a population’s public health priorities using evidence
• Explain the rationale for the selection of a health issue/ problem as a priority
• List community assets for addressing a health issue/problem

Lecture

• Prioritizing Health Needs

Assignments

• Week 5 Discussion

  • Initial post: Based on the assignments from prior weeks, in a 500-word post, list the top five health issues that need to be addressed in your selected community in order of priority, and justify your selection of the top two using Hanlon’s methods. Compare these health issues for your community with a neighboring community, county, state, or national data as a means to justify them as priorities to be addressed. 

    Response: Review the post of a peer and comment on how well their selection of priorities aligns with Hanlon’s methods. What did they do well? What could they have done differently?

• Week 5 Assignment
  • Based on the assignments from prior weeks, using 350 – 500 words (excluding references), identify and describe major community assets related to the TWO most important health priorities you have selected to be addressed in your community. These assets could include hospitals, colleges, churches, or other community resources that may contribute to alleviating the priority issues. Your paper should be double-spaced and size 12 font. 
• Video Quiz

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Week 6: Systems thinking in community assessments

Weekly Outcomes

• Apply critical thinking skills to a real-life public health issue
• Describe systems thinking in the context of community assessment and recommendations for policy makers
• Utilize a systems thinking tool to describe the multiple factors that affect health outcomes

Lecture

• Incorporating systems thinking into health interventions

Assignments

• Week 6 Discussion

  • Initial post: Review one peer-reviewed publication that uses one of the systems thinking methods or tools (not theories) shown in Table 1 of this week’s reading by Peters to evaluate the topmost priority health issue in your community. In the context of the information in the publication, describe two considerations that policy makers need to make as they propose intervention strategies related to the health issue. Your post should be at least 300 words in length.

    Response: Review the publication identified by one peer. Considering the systems thinking methodology used, name another health issue that could leverage the work done in your peer’s study. In other words, for which other health issue could the model generated in the study be re-used or adapted? Your response post should be at least 250 words in length.

• Week 6 Assignment
  • Create a stock and flow diagram of the system in which your topmost health issue occurs. You can use any software you like to create this diagram, but if you don’t have one you are familiar with, we recommend Draw.io (you can save your diagram directly to your computer by choosing “Device” as where you’d like to save your diagrams to). Your diagram should be specific to your topmost health issue, and should include at least 3 stocks, at least 3 flows, at least 2 converters, and 1 source.

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Week 7: Communicating your findings: Part 1

Weekly Outcomes

• Apply concepts covered in earlier weeks of the course into a high quality written final deliverable.
• Communicate public health information to different audiences.

Lecture

• Writing the final report

Assignments

• Video Quiz

• Prepare a 20 – 25 page final paper presenting the work you have completed throughout this course. Your paper should be double-spaced, and size 12 font.

  Final Project: Community Health Assessment Report

  Now that you have completed 6 weeks of assignments and discussion posts, you have a good idea of the health status of your selected community.

  You are the newly hired community health officer in your state/local health department tasked with assessing the health of your selected community, and developing a plan to address the most pressing health issues. Your goal is to convince the governor/mayor’s office to support and fund the mitigation measures you will propose. In order to do this, you need to communicate the information you have collected to the major stakeholders: policy makers, public health professionals, and the public. This written final project allows you to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired in this class to write a compelling report to policy makers and public health professionals. Next week, you will communicate your findings to a lay audience.

  Review the final project document for details on what is required for each section of the paper: GPH 732 Final Project Guidelines

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Week 8: Communicating your findings: Part 2

Weekly Outcomes

• Communicate health information using an oral presentation to a lay audience
• Provide a constructive critique on oral communication to a co-learner

Lecture

• UNE Online: Better Presentations

Assignments

• Week 8 Discussion: 
  

  Initial post: You are the director for communications at your local health department, and you have been invited to a press conference to address the state of the state/county/city. Submit a 5-minute video that summarizes the findings from your report to a lay audience. For effective communication, it is important that they see your face, therefore, avoid creating a voiced-over presentation. See detailed instructions in the attached document. 

  Response: Watch the presentations of two co-learners assigned to you by your instructor. Provide each of them with a written review of their presentation no later than Sunday at 11:59 pm ET.  See detailed instructions in the attached document. 

  Oral communication to a lay audience

Student Resources

Online Student Support

Your Student Support Specialist is a resource for you. Please don't hesitate to contact them for assistance, including, but not limited to course planning, current problems or issues in a course, technology concerns, or personal emergencies.

Questions? Visit the Student Support Public Health page

UNE Libraries:

• Library Access for all students: Your library login ID and password are the same as the ones you use to log into Blackboard/Brightspace.
• Public Health Databases: https://library.une.edu/library-materials/find/research-by-subject/public-health/
• Library Tutorial: Find an article
• Library Questions: Ask a librarian or phone library staff at (207) 602-2361 or (207) 221-4330.

UNE Student Academic Success Center

UNE's Student Academic Success Center (SASC) offers a range of free online services to support your academic achievement. Writing support, ESOL support, study strategy and learning style consultations, as well as downloadable resources, are available to all matriculating students. The SASC also offers tutoring for GPH 712 Epidemiology, GPH 716 Biostatistics, GPH 717 Applied Epidemiology, GPH 718 Biostatistics II, and GPH 719 Research Methods. To make an appointment for any of these services, go to une.tutortrac.com. For more information and to view and download writing and studying resources, please visit:

• UNE Student Academic Success Center

Information Technology Services (ITS)

• ITS Contact: Toll Free Help Desk 24 hours/7 days per week at 1-877-518-4673

Policies

AMA Writing Style Statement

The American Medical Association Manual (AMA) of Style, 11th edition is the required writing format for this course. Additional support for academic writing and AMA format is provided throughout the coursework as well as at the UNE Portal for Online Students.

Online resources: AMA Style Guide

Turnitin Originality Check and Plagiarism Detection Tool

The College of Professional Studies uses Turnitin to help deter plagiarism and to foster the proper attribution of sources. Turnitin provides comparative reports for submitted assignments that reflect similarities in other written works. This can include, but is not limited to, previously submitted assignments, internet articles, research journals, and academic databases.

Make sure to cite your sources appropriately as well as use your own words in synthesizing information from published literature. Webinars and workshops, included early in your coursework, will help guide best practices in APA citation and academic writing.

You can learn more about Turnitin in the Turnitin Student quick start guide.

Technology Requirements

Please review the technical requirements for UNE Online Graduate Programs: Technical Requirements

Course Evaluation Policy

Course surveys are one of the most important tools that University of New England uses for evaluating the quality of your education, and for providing meaningful feedback to instructors on their teaching. In order to assure that the feedback is both comprehensive and precise, we need to receive it from each student for each course. Evaluation access is distributed via UNE email at the beginning of the last week of the course.

Late Policy

Students are responsible for submitting work by the date indicated in Brightspace.

Quizzes and Tests: Quizzes and tests must be completed by the due date. They will not be accepted after the due date.

Assignments: Unless otherwise specified, assignments will be accepted up to 3 days late; however, there is a 10% grade reduction (from the total points) for the late submission. After three days the assignment will not be accepted.

Discussion posts: If the initial post is submitted late, but still within the discussion board week, there will be a 10% grade reduction from the total discussion grade (e.g., a 3 point discussion will be reduced by 0.3 points). Any posts submitted after the end of the Discussion Board week will not be graded.

Please make every effort ahead of time to contact your instructor and your student support specialist if you are not able to meet an assignment deadline. Arrangements for extenuating circumstances may be considered by faculty.

Student Handbook Online - Policies and Procedures

The policies contained within this document apply to all students in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. It is each student's responsibility to know the contents of this handbook.

Student Handbook

UNE Course Withdrawal

Please contact your student support specialist if you are considering dropping or withdrawing from a course. The last day to drop for 100% tuition refund is the 2nd day of the course. Financial Aid charges may still apply. Students using Financial Aid should contact the Financial Aid Office prior to withdrawing from a course.

Academic Integrity

The University of New England values academic integrity in all aspects of the educational experience. Academic dishonesty in any form undermines this standard and devalues the original contributions of others. It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to actively uphold the integrity of the academy; failure to act, for any reason, is not acceptable. For information about plagiarism and academic misconduct, please visit https://www.une.edu/studentlife/plagiarism.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:

1. Cheating, copying, or the offering or receiving of unauthorized assistance or information.
2. Fabrication or falsification of data, results, or sources for papers or reports.
3. Action which destroys or alters the work of another student.
4. Multiple submissions of the same paper or report for assignments in more than one course without permission of each instructor.
5. Plagiarism, the appropriation of records, research, materials, ideas, or the language of other persons or writers and the submission of them as one's own.

Charges of academic dishonesty will be reviewed by the Program Director. Penalties for students found responsible for violations may depend upon the seriousness and circumstances of the violation, the degree of premeditation involved, and/or the student’s previous record of violations.  Appeal of a decision may be made to the Dean whose decision will be final.  Student appeals will take place through the grievance process outlined in the student handbook.

Attendance Policy

Online students are required to submit a graded assignment/discussion prior to Sunday evening at 11:59 pm ET of the first week of the term. If a student does not submit a posting to the graded assignment/discussion prior to Sunday evening at 11:59 pm ET, the student will be automatically dropped from the course for non-participation. Review the full attendance policy.

Late Policy

Assignments: Late assignments will be accepted up to 3 days late; however, there is a 10% grade reduction (from the total points) for the late submission. After three days the assignment will not be accepted.

Discussion posts: If the initial post is submitted late, but still within the discussion board week, there will be a 10% grade reduction from the total discussion grade (e.g., a 3 point discussion will be reduced by 0.3 points). Any posts submitted after the end of the Discussion Board week will not be graded.

Please make every effort ahead of time to contact your instructor and your student support specialist if you are not able to meet an assignment deadline. Arrangements for extenuating circumstances may be considered by faculty.

Student Handbook Online - Policies and Procedures

The policies contained within this document apply to all students in the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. It is each student's responsibility to know the contents of this handbook.

UNE Online Student Handbook

UNE Course Withdrawal

Please contact your student support specialist if you are considering dropping or withdrawing from a course. The last day to drop for 100% tuition refund is the 2nd day of the course. Financial Aid charges may still apply. Students using Financial Aid should contact the Financial Aid Office prior to withdrawing from a course.

Academic Integrity

The University of New England values academic integrity in all aspects of the educational experience. Academic dishonesty in any form undermines this standard and devalues the original contributions of others. It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to actively uphold the integrity of the academy; failure to act, for any reason, is not acceptable. For information about plagiarism and academic misconduct, please visit UNE Plagiarism Policies.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to the following:

1. Cheating, copying, or the offering or receiving of unauthorized assistance or information.
2. Fabrication or falsification of data, results, or sources for papers or reports.
3. Action which destroys or alters the work of another student.
4. Multiple submissions of the same paper or report for assignments in more than one course without permission of each instructor.
5. Plagiarism, the appropriation of records, research, materials, ideas, or the language of other persons or writers and the submission of them as one's own.

Charges of academic dishonesty will be reviewed by the Program Director. Penalties for students found responsible for violations may depend upon the seriousness and circumstances of the violation, the degree of premeditation involved, and/or the student’s previous record of violations.  Appeal of a decision may be made to the Dean whose decision will be final.  Student appeals will take place through the grievance process outlined in the student handbook.