PHCA9506-Graduate Diploma in Public Health

Topic Descrition

This topic aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to plan a public health program and its evaluation.

Program Planning and Evaluation in Public Health provides students with the opportunity to develop their understanding of key program planning and evaluation concepts and expand their knowledge of relevant approaches and methods. In particular, this topic will focus on the key complexities inherent in planning public health programs in relation to evaluation planning, and the nexus between program planning and the identified public health problem. Students will be involved in critically appraising evaluations and will design a public health evaluation relevant to their area of work or interest. 

Topic Amis

• To provide students with an opportunity to develop their capacity to undertake public health program planning and evaluation initiatives.

• To enhance students’ theoretical and practical understanding of key program planning and evaluation issues relevant to public health. .

Assignment 1 – Report On Developing An Evaluation Plan And Program Logic

This assignment requires you to focus on developing and explicating a Program Logic and Evaluation Plan for a public/community health care program or project of your choice. This assignment does not ask you to conduct an evaluation or to replicate all of the program elements, and you will need to revise objectives/outcomes and strategies logically in your own words to avoid replicating mistakes or inaccuracies in the program/project and to render both the evaluation plan and program logic coherent. 

Your assignment must include the following:

1. Introduction explaining the program/project you have selected, the health problem it is addressing and the forthcoming structure of your assignment. .

2. Program Logic Plan a. Produce a Program Logic Plan. This should include all necessary details including a range of potential inputs and outputs, and short, medium and long term outcomes. 

b. Provide a written explanation for your Program Logic clarifying the concepts used and explaining the ‘logic’ of the program plan.

3. Evaluation Plan a. Taking 3-4 Outcomes (objectives) which address more than one group of stakeholders, produce a 1-2-page Evaluation Plan matrix in a table format. (Ensure that Evaluation Plan is consistent with your Program Logic).

b. Provide a Written Rationale for your Evaluation Plan clarifying the concepts used and justifying any evaluation decisions you would need to make concerning: the scope and timing of the evaluation, stakeholder involvement, who will be responsible for conducting the evaluation, the selection of indicators, the selection of data collection methods/administration modes, any ethical concerns, and any strategies to disseminate and utilise evaluation findings.

Assignment 2 – Critiquing a Publication Of An Evaluation Applying An Experimental Or a Quasi-Experimental Design

Drawing on and demonstrating your knowledge of evaluation design acquired so far in the course, please read the paper and address each area below

1. Provide an introduction to your assignment concisely summarising the written study and its design and setting out your assignment.(150 words)

2. Is an experimental design the best way of establishing the causal effect of peppermint oil reducing nausea? Explain your answer with reference to the requirements of an experimental design.

3. To what extent has this study adopted a true experimental design? (1200 words) Please include consideration of the following, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, credibility and where appropriate, how these might be improved: ? Clarity of Purpose,

? The Participants in the study

? The Nature of the Intervention

? The Design of the Intervention and Control Groups,

? The Procedures Used,

? Controlling of any confounding variables,

? The authors’ interpretations based on evidence 

4. Provide a conclusion summarising the adequacy of the experimental design used in the study and detailing if this experimental design could be enhanced by using additional evaluation methods?

Assignment 3 – Comparing, Contrasting And Applying Alternative Evaluation Designs/Strategies

Part 1

a) Pawson and Tilley (2004) describe their Realist Evaluation approach as not asking ‘what works’ or ‘does this program work’ but asks instead “What works for whom in what circumstances and in what respects and how?” Critically discuss what the differences and/or similarities are between this realist evaluation approach and that used in Michael Quinn Patton’s Utilization Focussed Evaluation.

b) Taking your own evaluation plan from assignment 1, could a realist evaluation improve this in any way?

Part 2

Assess the suitability, benefits, disadvantages of applying one of the following ‘participatory’ evaluation approaches to the project/program you selected for assignment 1.

a) Participatory action research

b) Empowerment evaluation

c) Developmental evaluation

Begin by stating the overall Goal of the program/project you selected; then fully explain the approach you have chosen above before applying it to your chosen program/project. Include a rational for any variations in the evaluation design or methods used and consider any political or ethical issues raised. 

Provide a conclusion which summarises the suitability of the approach chosen for your program/project.