Syllabus
Course Outline
This course has four key topic areas, explored across six sections. Each topic area is presented with a video introduction from Dr. Raj Panjabi, who highlights key themes. Course content includes: thematic videos featuring experts from global organizations and institutions like the World Health Organization; case study interviews featuring leaders from three exemplar countries, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Liberia; and supporting text, visuals, and interactive components. Each section also incorporates learner engagement and assessment questions in a variety of formats, such as multiple choice, matching exercises, and discussion questions based on a practical scenario.
Section 1: Community Health Workers as Part of Primary Health Care Teams
In Section 1 you’ll hear from Dr. Panjabi about the learning objectives for the course. You’ll learn about the experiences of community health workers in their own words and understand how community health workers form the foundation of an optimal health system. We’ll also highlight the WHO’s guideline for optimizing community health worker programs, a key resource for bringing high-quality programs to scale. Finally, you’ll be introduced to our case study country leaders from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Liberia, who will provide an overview of each country’s community health worker program.
Section 2: Making the Case
In Section 2 you will first hear from the exemplar country leaders about opposition they initially faced in establishing national community health worker programs and how they worked to overcome this opposition. We then present three key evidence-based arguments to support leaders in ‘making the case’ for community health worker programs as part of a broader vision of health equity.
Section 3: Building Coalitions (Part 1 - Challenges)
Section 3 highlights the unique and integral role of governments in supporting community health worker programs at scale. You will learn about the specific roles that only governments can play in regulating, scaling, and sustaining health systems interventions, and gain an understanding of how best to collaborate with government stakeholders. Through the case study videos in this section, you will hear about some of the challenges faced by leaders in establishing coalitions to coordinate and scale their community health worker programs -- both from within the government and from outside funders and partners.
Section 4: Building Coalitions (Part 2 - Solutions)
Building on the themes from Section 3, this section presents the role of implementing partners, technical assistance providers, and funders in supporting governments to build and scale community health worker programs. It highlights the challenges of operating in the often fragmented landscape of community health programs, and offers solutions for how partners and funders can best support governments to champion, scale, and sustain community health worker programs. Case study countries share their unique experiences in building coalitions and strategies for successful collaboration with partners and funders.
Section 5: A Systems Approach to Problem-Solving (Part 1)
Section 5 introduces you to some of the problems that can arise in implementing and scaling community health worker programs, and how these are systems challenges that require systems-level solutions. The section will take you on an interactive journey to gain understanding of the various health systems areas and their many linkages, in order to identify problems and generate solutions -- all with a focus on implementing and optimizing community health worker programs at scale. You will learn how to use a systems approach to ‘diagnose’ and ‘treat’ challenges relevant to community health worker programs.
Section 6: A Systems Approach to Problem-Solving (Part 2)
Building on the themes in the previous section, Section 6 focuses on demonstrating how adaptive management can facilitate a systems approach to problem-solving, not just in the context of community health worker programs but also in the health system as a whole. Case study countries will share their experiences applying adaptive management and problem solving to address real-life challenges experienced in their settings.
Grading & Certification
Grading for the course is distributed as follows:
Community Health Workers as Part of Primary Health Care Teams: 20% of final grade
Making the Case: 20% of final grade
Building Coalitions (Section 3 & 4): 20% of final grade
A Systems Approach to Problem-Solving (Section 5 & 6): 40% of final grade
Passing the course, and certification
The passing grade for this course is 70% (using the weights above).
If you register for a Verified Certificate, and your score is 70% or above, you will receive a certificate in electronic form. They are not mailed to you. Instead, you can generate them on your Progress page.
Guidelines For Collaboration
We encourage class participants to collaborate on assignments! But be sure you learn how to do the assignments yourself, and please do not post solutions to discussion forums until after the due date. Staff will proactively remove solutions posted before due dates.
- It is OK to discuss or work jointly to develop a general approach to an assignment.
- It is OK to get a hint from peers or course staff if you get stuck on an assignment.
- You should work out the details of assignments yourself.
- It is not OK to copy someone else's solution.
- It is not OK to post answers to a problem.
- It is not OK to look at a full step-by-step solution for the purpose of submitting an answer.
Discussion Forums
We encourage you to use the course Discussion Forum! It has many uses, and we'll prompt you to participate throughout the course.
Some good uses of the Discussion Forum:
- Asking questions about course content and assignments.
- Collaborating appropriately on assignments.
- Contacting course staff.
- Starting discussions related to course content.
- Commenting on course content, including giving the instructors feedback, disagreeing with us, or suggesting improvements.
- Building relationships with your peers both on and off the course platform.
Our discussion forum guidelines
- Be polite and encouraging.
- Work together and work independently.
- Post hints rather than answers. If you're not sure where to draw the line, follow the collaboration guidelines.
- You can and should discuss questions, consider possibilities, and ask for hints.
- You should not request or give out answers, even answers that you know are wrong.
- Use your vote. If you agree with what someone says, don't write a post. Just click the plus button!
- Tag your posts. If there is an issue that absolutely needs staff attention, put the word [STAFF] in brackets in your subject line.
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