“When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Will Appear” - the Online Education of Health Communicators

Background: One of the goals of Healthy People 2020 is to use health communication strategies (and health IT) to improve population health outcomes, health care quality and to achieve health equity. While the number of graduate programs in health communication continues to grow, there was initially a need to translate the rich experience in pedagogy and expand access to education through the first online program of its kind in the U.S., Boston University’s online Master of Science in Health Communication.

Program background: One of the ten graduate courses, appropriately entitled, “Introduction to Health Communication”, continues to prepare students for success in this rapidly emerging field in which professional communicators and health providers inform, influence and motivate individual, institutional, governmental and public audiences about important health issues. The course allows students to create and participate in interactive case studies and virtual field projects to better comprehend, compare, and contrast Health Communication campaigns through virtual classroom and community experiences.

Evaluation Methods and Results: We explored and measured the seven weeks of content (i.e. assignments, discussions, readings, and synchronous sessions), student evaluations, the impact of improvements in technology (i.e., social media, new video player, and upgraded live classroom), and other key lessons learned from the first and second installations of this course.

Conclusions: We found that these courses examined and bridged the theory and practice of interpersonal, organizational and mass communication, and new media relevant to the professional communicator and health practitioner alike. Each course successfully reviewed strategies of persuasion, the relationship between attitudes and health behavior through the lifespan, the changing nature of health and health delivery from local to global arenas, and evaluated successful and unsuccessful health information campaigns in both traditional health care approaches as well as in an evolving health care marketplace.

Implications for research and/or practice: In an effort to improve health communication and utilize related technologies across the United States, these online courses provided the foundational tools and strategies needed for effective and ethical health communicators and providers to excel in today's dynamic health care environment by delivering the specific skillset needed to address opportunities and anticipate challenges in promoting individual and population health.