Fundamentals of Public Health (MPH 500)
Summer
Course Materials
Text Name / Introduction to Public Health, 3rd EditionAuthor(s) / Mary-Jane Schneider
Publisher/Date / Jones and Bartlett Publishers/2011
ISBN / 978-0-7637-6381-7
Text Name / Milestones in Public Health: Accomplishments in Public Health over the last 100 Years
Author(s) / Pfizer
Publisher/Date / Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals
ISBN / 0-9761815-1-7
Course Description
Fundamentals of Public Health provides an introduction and overview of the extent and history of public health and the core concepts that represent the foundation of the public health field.
Course Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
1. Describe the historical development and basic domains of public health including biostatistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, environmental health, and health policy and management.
2. Compare, contrast, and describe how public health protects and promotes the health of individuals, communities and churches.
3. Recognize the role of public health and medical care in the control of disease, environmental hazards, injuries, and the reduction/elimination of health disparities.
4. Critically review medical and public health literature and research findings necessary for participation in the public health field.
5. Demonstrate understanding of research ethics and how to properly work with research subjects.
Instructor Contact Information: (email, phone, Skype, etc.)
Success in an online class requires that you communicate with me whenever you have questions.
· If you have general questions that are of interest to the entire group, you should post them on the Discussion Forum and I will answer them there. If a general question arrives by email, I will redirect it to the Forum.
· If you need to contact me personally, please utilize the contact information listed in Contact Instructor.
· Barring unusual circumstances, I will monitor my email at least once a day Monday through Friday. Customarily I respond to your email within 24 hours, but occasionally I may take longer. You might receive responses at night or on weekends, but this is not to be expected. If you do not receive a reply by the second day, please resend your message.
Course Content Issues
If you are having problems with either the technology or the course content, you need to let me know as soon as possible.
o Without feedback I will never know what is wrong.
o Remember that many of the nonverbal cues that you use in the classroom to show frustration, boredom, or confusion are not possible in an online class.
o You must keep me up to date on any problems you are encountering.
Instructor Presence in Course - Normally I am online at least once every 24 hours and will respond to questions within 24 hours.
Course Format
This class will be conducted as an online seminar course with students using the discussion board to respond to material read and raise questions. You will need to read the material for the week before class so you can discuss knowledgeably. Discussion will also focus on relating these concepts to your own lives, those around you and current practices, policies and institutions. You will be asked to do some outside readings and research. As you come across materials that may be of interest to others, please share. In addition, if you know of a speaker, articles, or part of a video that might be a good example of a concept or topic, please share that with your peers and with the instructor.
Course Requirements
You are responsible for any information assigned or presented for this on-line class including readings, discussions, comments, and presentation of reports based on the following:
Course Schedule and Grading
Following are the weekly assignments, contact time, and points values for the assignments in this course:
Assessment Designation and Mapping
Assessment Designation / AssessmentA / Forum Participation
B / Research Paper
C / NIH Human Subject Certification
D / In the News
E / Contagion Movie Assessment
Outcome Number / Description of Course Outcome / Where Assessed
1 / Describe the historical development and basic domains of public health including biostatistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, environmental health, and health policy and management. / A, B, D, E
2 / Compare, contrast, and describe how public health protects and promotes the health of individuals, communities and churches. / A, B, D, E
3 / Recognize the role of public health and medical care in the control of disease, environmental hazards, injuries, and the reduction/elimination of health disparities. / A, B, D, E
4 / Critically review medical and public health literature and research findings necessary for participation in the public health field. / A, B, D
5 / Demonstrate understanding of research ethics and how to properly work with research subjects. / A, B, C
Course Schedule
Week Title / Assignments / Contact Time / PointsWeek 1: What is Public Health? / Readings: Prologue, Chapters 1-3 (Intro. text), “Looking Back” in all chapters (Milestones text), and supplemental materials
Written Assignments:
Self-Introduction Posting
Select and Approve Research Topic
Discussion #1: Public Health State-by-State
Discussion #2: History of Public Health in Chicago / 8 hours
1 hour
3 hours
5 hours
5 hours / 30
30
Week 2: Analytical Methods of Public Health / Readings: Chapters 4-6 (Intro. Text), three Case Studies in the Milestones text, and supplemental materials
Written Assignments:
Contagion Movie Assessment
Epidemiology and Your Research Topic
In the News #1
Discussion #1: Epidemiologic Investigation Assessment
/ 6 hours
5 hours
3 hours
1 hour
5 hours /
30
15
30
Week 3: Analytical Methods of Public Health cont’d / Readings: Chapters 7-8 (Intro. text)
Written Assignments:
Biostatistics and your Research Topic
Completion of NIH Human Subject Certification
Discussion #1: The Role of Biostatistics in Public Health
/ 4 hours
3 hours
2 hours
5 hours / 70
30
Week 4: Biomedical Basis of Public Health / Readings: Chapters 9-12 (Intro. text) and Chapters 1, 4-6 (Milestones text)
Written Assignments:
Biomedical Basis and your Research Topic
In the News #2
Discussion #1: To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate, That is the Question / 6 hours
3 hours
1 hour
5 hours / 15
30
Week 5: Social and Behavioral Factors in Public Health / Readings: Chapters 13-18 (Intro. text) and supplemental materials
Written Assignments:
Social and Behavioral Factors and your Research Topic
Discussion #1: Public Health Plan / 7 hours
3 hours
5 hours / 30
Week 6: Environmental Issues in Public Health / Readings: Chapters 19-24 (Intro. text) Chapters 3 & 7 (Milestones text), and supplemental materials
Written Assignments:
Continue working on Research Paper
In the News #3
Discussion #1: Environmental Health Issue Analysis
/ 7 hours
3 hours
1 hour
5 hours / 15
30
Week 7: Medical Care and Public Health / Readings: Chapters 25-27 (Intro. text), Chapter 11 (Milestones text), and supplemental materials
Written Assignments:
In the News #4
Research Paper Due
Discussion #1: The Great Debate
/ 5 hours
1 hour
4 hour
5 hours / 15
100
30
Week 8: Future of Public Health / Readings: Chapter 30 (Intro. text) and supplemental materials
Written Assignment:
Complete Course Evaluation
Discussion #1: Public Health Achievements Now and in the Future
Discussion #2: Research Power Point / 4 hours
1 hour
5 hour
8 hours / 30
30
Total Hours: 135 / Total Points: 560
Grading Procedures and Rubrics:
Grade/Percentages/Points
A = 93-100%
A-= 90-92%
B+= 87-89%
B = 83-86%
B-= 80-82%
C+= 77-79%
C = 73-78%
C-= 70-72%
D+= 67-69%
D = 63-66%
D-= 60-62%
F = 0-59%%
With the exception of the introduction, all assignments will be due on a Sunday.
Written Assignment Rubric
All written work must conform to APA guidelines (http://www.apastyle.org/). You will complete many writing assignments so using correct spelling and grammar is necessary for communicating your thoughts. Use your spell check, dictionary, and proofread your papers. Points will be deducted for multiple errors. All assignments will be typed and graded on Format, Content, and Writing Style in which a Work-place Based method will be used to grade assignments.
Workplace-Based Method (rubric):
A Your supervisor would gladly send this message with no edits. This document would make you stand out among other employees.
B Your supervisor would send this message with minor edits: document has a few grammatical, mechanical, and/or format errors.
C This document contains several grammatical, mechanical, and/or format errors. It needs major editing before it could be sent.
D This document shows some understanding of the assignment, but it must be completely rewritten before your supervisor would send it.
F This document does not show an understanding of the assignment. It would put your job in serious jeopardy.
Discussion Board Rubric
Your discussion board assignments will be due weekly. Discussion will play a vital role in the learning process of this online course. Questions will be posted each week in class that will require your thoughtful responses to the readings. Post your weekly discussion board comment sets to the Discussion Board each week by Thursday at midnight, CST. Respond to at least four fellow students by Saturday at midnight, CST.
How to Complete Discussion Sets
a. While I prefer that you cut and paste responses into the discussion board box, you should always type the material into a document and save that document. The online course platform will time out after 90 minutes. If you write for more than that without saving or copying the material you may lose your work.
b. Write down comments that come to mind about what you are reading.
c. Pick four comments/thoughts that will lend themselves for reflection and discussion. While you may connect to previous readings and should, the focus must remain on the current topic.
d. Reflect and respond on what you pulled out of the readings. You may connect your response/reflections to real world experience, but frame them within the context of the reading. You may ask questions, but you must also reflect on why you ask particular questions and propose how you might respond to them.
e. Cite the context of your discussion by indicating the book and page number(s) so that your peers may know and locate your source. Use the APA guidelines to cite your sources (i.e. Gernant, 2008, p. 177-178).
f. Respond to readings each week and post comment threads to at least four of your peers.
g. Your personal responses should be a minimum of 500 words. Your responses to others should be a minimum of 200 words.
In the News Rubric
Good5 / Adequate
3 / Needs Improvement
1
Article Choice / You selected a recent (current year) newspaper article that illustrates public health in the news. / Your article is not from the current year, but illustrates public health in the news. / You did not select an article that illustrates public health.
Reflection / You make insightful connections between the article and public health and describe what basic public health domain it could be classified as. / You make connections between the article and public health. / You make minimal or no connections between the article and public health.
Spelling, Snytax, and APA / Your reflection is very well written, with almost no errors in spelling or syntax. You included a correct APA citation of your article. / Your reflection contains few errors in spelling, syntax, and APA citation (approx. 3 or less). / Your review contains frequent erros in spelling, syntax, and APA citation.
Total Points
Research Paper Rubric
Improvement Expectations Expectations
Identified a disease or health-related condition that is important to public health / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Explained the disease or condition from the epidemiological perspective including risk factors and distribution of disease in the population / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Described the biomedical basis of the disease or condition / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Explained the environmental factors of the disease or condition / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Explained social and behavioral factors of the disease or condition / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Discussed the biostatistics (kind of data collected and how it is used) for the disease or condition / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Explained what the government (at all levels) is doing and what it should do to reduce/improve the disease or condition (Health Policy) / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Attention to mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax) / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Used APA format for citations both in the body of the paper and in reference list / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Utilized at least 12 references/resources and paper was at least 8-10 pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) to demonstrate you fully understood all public health facets of the disease or health-related condition / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Total – 100 Points Possible
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