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Effective Risk Communication

Location
Internet
Term
Summer Institute
Department
Health, Behavior and Society
Credit(s)
2
Academic Year
2025 - 2026
Instruction Method
Synchronous Online
Class Time(s)
M, Tu, W, Th, F, 1:00 - 4:00pm
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Sohail Agha
Contact Name
Sohail Agha
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Description
This course will help you learn how to create effective, theory-based, communication messages for digital media interventions. It will provide students a practical learning from digital media vaccine campaigns in Bangladesh and Nigeria. The students will have the opportunity to critique and contribute to the development of materials for the ongoing HPV campaign. Students will gain experience in the use of easy-to-use audience segmentation techniques in designing risk communication strategies and messages
Prepares students to develop effective risk communication strategies using digital media. Emphasize practical theories of social and behavioral change which are intuitive and can be applied by practitioners in LMICs. Teaches not only how to increase the motivation to adopt healthier behavior, but also how ability factors due to inequities inhibit behavioral adoption and the extent to which communications interventions can address these barriers. Teaches the strengths and limitations of digital behavior change approaches, the current state of the literature on digital interventions, and how the effectiveness of digital interventions can be augmented
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Apply a theory of behavior change to design communication interventions
  2. Use behavioral segmentation to develop communications content
  3. Recommend appropriate digital tools to generate behavioral insights for intervention design
  4. Describe how digital interventions should be evaluated
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
  • 20% Participation
  • 20% Discussion
  • 30% Paper(s)
  • 30% Final Project
Instructor Consent
No consent required
Special Comments

Course is offered remotely. The individual paper will be due on Sunday 6/28 and the final paper on Sunday 7/26