Back to Courses

P8705  Evaluation of health programs

Prerequisites: P6400 and P6103/P6104 and, for all Health Promotion track students, P6727. Third in the sequence of SMS courses required for all Health Promotion track students.

The ability to answer the questions of whether a program works and why (or why not) is the essential task of the program evaluator. This course helps students prepare for this task through an examination of principles, methods, and practices of program evaluation. The focus is on quantitative quasi-experimentation and process evaluation. The course addresses challenges to establishing causal linkages between programs and outcomes and how these challenges can be addressed by employing various evaluation designs. Approaches for conducting evaluations under conditions not amenable to assessing program impact are examined. Examples from the public health literature are used to demonstrate how various evaluation principles and methods are applied in actual programs. Assigned and in-class exercises help students critically assess how to address challenges to conducting realistic evaluations, interpret and communicate evaluation findings, and develop an appreciation of the science and art of evaluation.

3 points