Introduction to Impact Evaluation of Health Communication Programs

Impact evaluation, which measures the extent to which a program's goals and objectives were attained and helps explain those effects, is vital to strategic and cost-effective investment and decision-making.

This course provides an introduction for learners to apply theories of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) and advanced statistical methods to improve the precision of the measurement of health communication impact. Learners will be able to develop a theory of change to help guide the design of impact analysis, describe the types of research designs and the strengths and weaknesses of each, and identify threats to the validity of causal inferences and how to overcome them.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Identify main constructs from common theories of communication and behavior change.
2. Describe a Theory of Change (or hypothesis) of communication effects for a specific project that can be tested empirically.
3. Identify an appropriate evaluation design matched to the characteristics of a specific communication intervention.