HD420: Social Determinants of Health and Health Behavior

In this course, you will explore how health and wellness may be influenced by social conditions, which are outside of lifestyle choices and medical treatments. You will work through an introduction to the social determinants of health, theories of health behavior, and how they affect health inequities and health disparities. This course will explore strategies to identify and assess the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that impact the health and/or learning processes of priority population(s). Health education specialists utilize their leadership skills to assess, plan, advocate, implement and evaluate ethical and professional strategies to support health and wellness in population health. This course will further develop critical thinking, research, scholarly writing and analysis, and presentation skills to assess health inequities and reduce health disparities.

Quarter Credit Hours: 6 | Prerequisite: None

HD440: Health Education Program Assessment and Planning

This course examines the key principles of conducting needs assessments, interpreting needs assessment data, and planning effective health education and promotion programs. You will explore concepts, theories, and methods in assessing needs of communities and planning health education promotion programs.

Quarter Credit Hours: 6 | Prerequisite: None

HD460: Health Education Program Implementation and Evaluation

This course explores the implementation and evaluation of health education and promotion programs. You will examine how to coordinate the delivery of health education and promotion interventions and build relationships with partners and stakeholders. You will also learn how to recruit and train program staff to assist with program implementation. This course will analyze the need for creating an environment that is conducive to learning and delivering the health education and promotion program as designed. Monitoring implementation to ensure program fidelity, track program progress and modify interventions as needed will be discussed. You will become familiar with creating an evaluation instrument and collecting data, as well as preparing data for analysis while identifying limitations and delimitations of the findings. Finally, this course will assess the sustainability of program implementation for program continuation.

Quarter Credit Hours: 6 | Prerequisite: None

HD480: Health Communication, Social Marketing, and Advocacy

In this course, you will explore how health communication and social marketing are necessary tools used in advocating for policy, systemic, or environmental change as it relates to current or emerging health issues. Communication and social marketing theories will be presented and used to help develop messages focused on changing or maintaining an individual's behavior for the benefit of the individual and society as a whole. This course will explore strategies used to identify and assess health issues and identify factors that aid and/or hinder advocacy efforts while developing persuasive messages and materials to facilitate change. This course will further develop critical thinking, research, analysis, and presentation skills to advocate for policy, systemic, or environmental change. You will explore concepts, theories, and methods in assessing needs of communities and developing population-specific communication messages and materials to influence positive behavior change.

Quarter Credit Hours: 6 | Prerequisite: None

HD499: Bachelor's Capstone in Health Education and Promotion

This capstone course is the culminating experience for the Bachelor of Science in Health Education and Promotion. This course builds on the concepts of all courses you have taken within the program of study. The capstone course provides you with the opportunity to integrate and synthesize the knowledge and skills acquired throughout your coursework, and to assess your level of mastery of the stated outcomes of your degree program in health education and promotion.

Quarter Credit Hours: 6 | Prerequisite: Last term