Transcript: Overview of Assignments

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Your course grade will be based largely on a single iterative assignment. The eventual goal is to draft a kind of policy brief that recommends the adoption of a comprehensive intervention and monitoring framework addressing a chronic disease risk factor/risk condition of your choice, such as smoking tobacco products, poverty, lack of social cohesion, alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, the built environment, etc.

Your framework must include a mix of at least three or more complementary policies, communication campaigns, service, or development activities. The mix may include clinical practices (e.g., getting primary care providers to follow clinical guidelines to counsel patients about a risk factor or condition), but it should not exclusively focus on clinical treatment strategies. The overall purpose of the framework is to improve population health. That means that it must be designed to positively shift the population distribution of the risk factor or condition for a specific community, region, province/state, or country. The concepts of population impact and population or clinical interventions will become clear as you complete the remainder of this module. The interventions within your framework may be directed at individuals, groups, organizations, communities and/or entire populations. The framework may be designed to be relevant at an international, national, provincial/state, or local decision making body, such as a Board of Health or a Board of Education.

Your framework should be original. You should not simply replicate an existing framework. However, you may substantially adapt or build upon previous frameworks. If you choose to build upon or modify an existing framework, you must indicate how your framework has been adapted, and address why your modifications are expected to be an improvement.

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A key feature of the iterative assignment is its iterative nature. Iterative refers to a process of repetition. Most of the skills we develop in our professional and personal lives come about through repetition or successive approximations. That is, we start with a working draft of something then get feedback to improve our draft. This is precisely the process I am trying to create with your assignment. The assignment will be broken into three parts. Each part will be submitted to me or your preceptor for feedback. You will then have the opportunity to use the feedback from each section to create a final draft at the end of the course. Your grade will be based on a combination of your initial drafts and the full, final document.

You may want to find a peer buddy in the course - someone who would be willing to review your drafts in return for reviewing their drafts. I also encourage you to post general messages to your colleagues to help you solve problems or answer questions about your chosen assignment. They may be able to help you find literature or data. Reciprocity is an important component of being a member of the Public Health community.

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You will begin by selecting a proposed topic. The topic must be approved by the instructor. Appropriate topics might include behavioural risk factors for chronic disease such as healthier eating, enhancing physical activity, reducing substance abuse, increasing sun protective behaviours, and so on. You may also select a more socially oriented risk condition such as reducing income inequity or improving social cohesion or social capital.

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The body of your final document should contain several parts or elements. These include: An executive summary, a description of the problem, a rationale making the case for why intervention is necessary to address the selected problem, the goal and objectives of your overall intervention framework, your intended audience, a description of each individual intervention you are considering, a brief discussion of each intervention option including its expected benefits and limitations, a final recommended mix and dose of interventions, an implementation and monitoring plan commensurate with your recommendation.

The executive summary does not have to be submitted until the final, full document is due at the end of the term. However, the other components are broken into three parts. The first submission for feedback should contain the problem description, the case or rationale for intervening/taking action on the issue, the intervention goal and objectives, and audience. The second submission includes a description of the individual intervention options, their expected benefits and limitations, and your recommended mix of interventions. The third and final submission should include your plan for implementation, including a description of each partner and their role, as well as a plan for how your recommended intervention mix should be monitored.

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Your full final document should be a maximum of 10 single spaced pages. Please refer to the outline for details on how to format the pages. The 10-page maximum does NOT include the title page, executive summary, or any Tables, Figures, Appendices or references. However, all aspects of your proposal, including the title page, executive summary, Tables, appendices, etc. must not exceed 25 pages. We will not read or mark any material that exceeds the page limits.

You may use what ever reference style you prefer, including Vancouver, APA, bio-medical editors, Chicago Manual of Style, etc . However, please make sure the style you choose is a recognized standard and that you apply this standard consistently throughout the document.

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Check the Iterative Assignment page for instructions about how to submit your documents through LEARN.
Your proposal and all subsequent documents should be constructed using a recent version of MS Word. Those of you using other word processing software should submit your document in PDF format using a recent version of Adobe Acrobat.

Check the Course Schedule for due dates for submitting your proposed topic for approval and the first drafts of your introduction, intervention plan, and implementation and monitoring plan. The preceptors and/or I will aim to provide you with feedback within one week of submission. The final, complete framework document must be submitted on or before the date listed in the Course Schedule.

The introduction is worth 15% of your final grade, while the intervention plan and the implementation and monitoring plans are worth 20% respectively. The final framework document counts towards 35% of your final grade.

Late assignments will be subject to a grade penalty. Assignments submitted more than 7 days late will receive a grade of zero.

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The remaining 10% of your final grade will be derived from participation in weekly, online discussion forums related to topics addressed in the course. The purpose of the discussion topics is to encourage you to engage with your colleagues on current issues related to population health interventions for preventing disease and promoting health. They also provide an opportunity to comment on or ask questions about issues raised in the weekly readings, and to highlight and discuss current events related to population health interventions.

There will be a total of ten discussion topics, each of which ends with 2-3 related questions. You are encouraged to post at least once per week, starting with the first discussion post next week up to the final discussion post in week 11. In this first week, please post to the Introduce Yourself discussion topic to share more about your background as well as your interest in this course.

The grade assigned will be based not only on regular participation but also the quality (e.g., demonstrates critical thinking, made in a respectful tone) of your posts. Please refer to your course outline for more detailed instructions regarding participation in the discussion forums.

This ends my overview of the course assignments, and you can now begin to progress through the rest of Module 1. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or the preceptor if you have any questions or concerns regarding the course outline or assignments.