410.656.01
Entertainment Education for Behavior Change and Development
Location
East Baltimore
Term
4th Term
Department
Health, Behavior and Society
Credit(s)
4
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
In-person
M, W, 1:30 - 3:20pm
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
In this course you will get the chance to apply state-of-the-art social behavior change and entertainment education techniques to an issue that you care passionately about. By the end of the course you will have a program design, characters and stories that you can use in your portfolio. You will get to use both sides of your brain - the critical and the creative. We will talk to Entertainment Education specialists in the US and around the Globe. With a critical eye, we will watch TV shows, parts of films, music videos, ads and more.
This course is approved for the Health Communication Certificate sponsored by the Department of Health, Behavior & Society.
Examines and teaches ways in which education can be subtly but effectively worked into both new and time-honored genres of entertainment in order to foster positive behavior change and life improvement in both developing countries and local environments. Develops students’ ability to understand the ingredients of successful entertainment: emotions, empathy, efficacy and empowerment, and how these can be employed to enhance social and personal health and life skills. Examines methodology and develops skills needed to create a successful Entertainment-Education (E-E) project in entertainment (story, drama, etc.) formats with effective behavior change messages.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Analyze a societal or individual behavior problem that is to be improved through Entertainment-Education (E-E)
- Define the differences in E-E program types for different audiences, such as children, adolescents, adults
- Develop a detailed Design Document (guide for program writers and evaluators) showing the precise discuss that will be taught in the E-E project
- Construct the synopsis and character sketches for a TV or radio serial drama designed to encourage behavior or social change and create complete episodes of the drama for the intended audience
- Design and construct support materials, including Distance Education (Edu-tainment) materials for “on-the-ground” supporters of the intended audience of the E-E project
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 20% Participation
- 60% Assignments
- 20% Final Presentation
Enrollment Restriction
Graduate students. Instructor consent required for undergraduate students.