Skip to main content
Unit of study_

PUBH5227: Real World Public Health Program Evaluation

Comprehensive evaluation of public health and disease prevention programs is critical to developing an evidence base for public health practice as well as for accountability to stakeholders. Evaluations demonstrate the efficacy, effectiveness and/or efficiency of the program and provide models of good practice. This course builds skills in planning, conducting and using formative, process, impact and outcome evaluations of public health programs, with an emphasis on those which address public health approaches to chronic disease prevention. Using three highly interactive workshops (Workshops 1 and 2 on a consecutive Friday and Saturday) supplemented by online resources and four weeks of online discussions, students will participate in readings, group work, lectures and discussions, to develop skills in defining the purpose of an evaluation, defining the evaluation questions, selecting evaluation designs and measures for evaluation (and understand the process of measurement development). A specific focus will be on skills to critically appraise evaluations and to use results in practice. Workshop 3 will be devoted to methods for scaling up interventions to the population level, and to the design and evaluation of multi-faceted complex public health programs, including presentations by currently practicing public program managers.

Code PUBH5227
Academic unit Public Health
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
PUBH5033
Corequisites:
? 
None
Prohibitions:
? 
None

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. analyse and correctly apply levels of evaluation to public health programs
  • LO2. generate logic models in order to understand how they can inform evaluations of public health programs
  • LO3. evaluate the appropriateness of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods study design in program evaluation
  • LO4. create and evaluate different types of quantitative measures in order to use them appropriately in program evaluation
  • LO5. demonstrate an understanding of the purpose and limitations of natural experiments for evaluation
  • LO6. apply concepts of program complexity and the purpose and process of scaling up.