Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH SB 785: Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use: People, Populations and Policies
  Alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Because virtually everyone has some experience with ATOD use themselves or in others, much about this topic is thought to be common knowledge, but in this course students will be surprised at the depth of scientific knowledge known that is not widely understood, in part evidenced by common policies and approaches that are not evidence-based. This course asks students to critically examine current ATOD research, intervention and prevention practice, and policy with the goal of acquiring skills with which to improve strategies to reduce ATOD-related consequences, illness and injury. Specifically, students will become well-versed in models for understanding ATOD use; gain knowledge in ATOD use across multiple populations and throughout the lifespan; understand contemporary public health debates regarding ATOD research and prevention strategies; learn how to address the deficiencies in current public health approaches to ATOD use; and be able to apply knowledge to emerging public health problems.
• SPH SB 800: Obesity in Society
  This course explores environmental and policy approaches to promote physical activity and healthy eating, two behaviors strongly associated with obesity prevention. Students will gain knowledge in this topic by examining the literature and relevant strategies. Upon completion,students will be able to develop strategies to promote population wide physical activity and healthy eating.
• SPH SB 806: Communications Strategies for Public Health
  This core course focuses on the development and execution of a planned communications strategy for a public health organization that is responsible for a community-based intervention. The course also features a review of basic theory and research that can inform the health communications process. SB806 uses practice-based learning to teach course competencies and skills. Specifically, students will are assigned a public health problem faced by a public health agency, and consult with the public health agency throughout the semester. Working through a sequence of written assignments, students conduct a literature review to inform an evidence-based and innovative intervention plan, and then prepare several materials to execute a communications strategy in support of the intervention. Communication pieces may include, but are not limited to: press release, letter to the editor, pitch letter with infographic, editorial, social media, video, and press event. Writing workshops in class, skill-based exercises, and consultations with the public health agency and instructor are designed to give students ideas for their projects, interim feedback on their written assignments, and tools necessary to successfully develop and present a product that can be implemented by the public health agency. Students present their final project to the class and public health agency partner.
• SPH SB 808: Merging Clinical & Population-Based Perspectives in Public Health Practice: Tension & Resolution
  Clinicians and public health professionals rarely share common definitions of health or illness, and they often have competing interests, conflicting agendas, and different strategic approaches to health care problems. This course explores contradictions and tensions between two perspectives that limit the effectiveness of both personal medical care and public health activities. The course features interactive discussions and readings that address both the public health and medical/clinical responses to public health challenges: the Opioid Overdose Epidemic, Community Violence, Humanitarian Disasters and Mass Casualties, Injury prevention/Falls, point of care Emergency Department education and testing for HIV and HCV, and immigrant and refugee health and the role of interpreter services. Students observe population-based programs within an emergency department setting and explore the policy implications of collaborative, integrated models.
• SPH SB 813: Web-based Health Communication Strategies for Public Health Interventions
  This course covers key health communication principles for designing and critiquing digital health behavior change interventions. Students work in small groups to conduct formative research to plan a public health intervention website and prototype. Key deliverables include a comprehensive strategy document, a website diagram, a website prototype and usability testing results. Course topics include defining an audience, setting clear objectives, applying health behavior theory concepts, competitor analysis, using story as a health communication strategy, designing for accessibility, conducting usability testing, and working with practical user-centered design approaches (such as affinity diagramming and user personas). Although the emphasis is on the intervention planning process and not technology, a series of hands-on computer labs introduce students to basic online content creation tools and provide instruction and support for creating a simple website prototype. No technical background is necessary.
• SPH SB 818: Qualitative Research Methods
  This course provides an introduction to the use of qualitative research methods in public health. Students will gain experience in the use and application of qualitative research methods including participant observation, in-depth and key informant interviewing, focus group discussions, systematic data collection, and document analysis. Students examine different qualitative methods and techniques and learn how they can be used alone or in conjunction with quantitative methods. The course also includes attention to topics such as validity and reliability, triangulation, operationalization, site and resource identification, sampling methods, framing questions, and interview design. The course includes some basic data analysis approaches. By the end of the course, students will have developed a brief research proposal on a topic of their choice that is based on preliminary research that students conduct throughout the course.
• SPH SB 820: Assessment and Planning for Health Promotion
  This course will introduce students to neighborhoods of Boston and provide opportunities for acquiring and practicing community assessment skills. We address the fundamental question: How do public health scientists and practitioners demonstrate that a health problem in a community warrants intervention? Students will learn to consult the literature, large data sets (such as the U.S. Census, hospitalization data, vital records, and national survey data) and geographic/mapping data, as well as conduct key informant interviews and site visits to assess health promotion needs and assets of a specific neighborhood and groups. The course will culminate in the production of a community needs assessment report integrating the various sources of data gathered over the course of the semester.
• SPH SB 821: Intervention Strategies for Health Promotion
  This course focuses on strategic planning for public health practice. Social science approaches are included. Working through a sequence of written assignments, students develop a strategic plan for a program intervention designed to change health behavior or a health outcome. Work in class and during individual consultations is designed to give students practice with elements of the strategic planning process, ideas for their project, and interim feedback on their written assignments.
• SPH SB 822: Quantitative Methods for Program Evaluation
  This course provides an overview of the major principles and methods associated with systematic evaluation of public health programs. The overall goal is to help students develop skills needed to plan, conduct, critique, and use evaluation research. The course covers: program logic models; formative, process and outcome evaluations; internal, external, validity; threats to internal validity; experimental and quasi-experimental designs; probability and non-probability sampling; questionnaire development; operationalization of variables; statistical analysis strategies; power analysis; and analysis of evaluation design.
• SPH SB 832: Trauma, Trauma-Informed Care, Recovery & Resilience
  This course will provide students the opportunity to understand trauma as a public health issue from interpersonal- and disaster-based perspectives. Students will strengthen their skills through critical analysis of published research on trauma, trauma-informed approaches, treatment, recovery and resilience-building. Students will apply their skills to create a strategic plan for a topic of their own choosing related to trauma-informed approaches or resilience-building, or develop a strategic plan that incorporates trauma-informed approaches and resilience-building for an established program/intervention/initiative through collaboration with community partners.
• SPH SB 833: Designing and Implementing a Public Health Communication Campaign
  What does it take to design a health communication campaign? Who is involved? What works? How do you produce an effective public health video? These are just a few of the questions that will be addressed by students of SB833. Students will work in teams for real non-profit organizations and produce a video that meets the communication needs of that client. They will learn about communication strategic planning and thinking as well as the steps towards producing an effective video. The final product is a finished video and an accompanying narrative report.
• SPH SB 860: Strategies for Public Health Advocacy
  This course is for advanced MPH students. It will explore the role public health practitioners can play in advocating for programs and policies to improve the public's health that have been demonstrated to be effective through peer reviewed scientific research. Students will analyze the process of advocating for policy and program change based on scientific evidence at the city, state and federal level through the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
• SPH SB 921: Directed Studies in Social & Behavioral Sciences
  Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH SB 922: Directed Research in Social & Behavioral Sciences
  Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH SB 940: Culminating Experience in Social and Behavioral Sciences
  All Social & Behavioral Sciences concentrators must complete an integrative professional electronic portfolio as their Culminating Experience. The electronic portfolio will frame individual students' expertise, focus, experience, and skills in public health and help them to market themselves for employment as public health practitioners. Within the electronic portfolio, students will reflect upon their studies and synthesize materials from a range of courses. In integrating their knowledge, students will develop a plan of lifelong learning that reflects areas in which to bridge a knowledge gap or focus in greater depth. To document their work on the culminating experience, concentrators must register for SPH SB940, a zero-credit, pass/fail course. For more details on the requirements for the culminating experience, please see the Concentrator Guide.
• SPH SB 941: Culminating Experience in Social and Behavioral Sciences II
  All Social & Behavioral Sciences concentrators must complete an integrative professional electronic portfolio as their Culminating Experience. The electronic portfolio will frame individual students' expertise, focus, experience, and skills in public health and help them to market themselves for employment as public health practitioners. To document their work on the culminating experience, concentrators must register for SPH SB940, a zero-credit, pass/fail course. Should they not finish the portfolio in the semester in which they registered for SB940, students must register for SB941 and complete their work. For more details on the requirements for the culminating experience, please see the Concentrator Guide.

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