Planning and Development of the Social Marketing Program for Public Health - 2024 (self-paced)

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the online course “Planning and Development of the Social Marketing Program for Public Health” developed by the Risk Factors and Nutrition Unit of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in coordination with the University of South Florida (USF) WHO Collaborating Center on Social Marketing and Social Change. This learning program is funded by the American Heart Association and the Alliance for Universal Health Coverage.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE AND THE SOCIAL MARKETING PROGRAM FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
The “Planning and Development of the Social Marketing Program for Public Health” course is a self-learning (self-paced) course that aims to train public health professionals from the Region of the Americas to implement social marketing programs, apply commercial marketing strategies to achieve behavior change in the population, promote healthy habits, or prevent diseases.

Upon completing the 4-module program, participants will be able to direct or supervise social marketing programs, make informed decisions, and apply a systematic 5-stage process that ranges from problem formulation to monitoring and evaluation of the plan.

In this course, organized in 4 modules, you will learn to identify and describe the health need and the target audience, develop a social marketing strategy, prepare its launch and, finally, to monitor and evaluate the program. You will also learn how to disseminate the results and take advantage of the findings for the continuous improvement of social marketing processes.

In the PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH), you will find multimedia lessons with exercises and an evaluation questionnaire at the end of each module, which you can access once you complete the lessons and that you must pass to obtain the course certificate.

The course modality is self-paced learning, which means that there are no tutors or set end dates, and therefore, you can access the content and complete the course at your own pace. Before you begin the course, you should complete the Introduction to Social Marketing for Public Health self-paced course, in which you will learn the basics of social marketing and how it can be applied in public health.

Once you join the course, we ask you to review the content of the first section called “General course information” where you will find all the guidance you need to successfully complete the course.

TARGET AUDIENCE AND PREREQUISITES
The “Planning and Development of the Social Marketing Program for Public Health” is aimed at public health professionals from the Latin American and the Caribbean region who work in areas such as health promotion, prevention and control of chronic noncommunicable diseases, promotion of healthy food and physical activity, tobacco control, alcohol consumption, among other areas, that share the need to influence people’s behavior to improve their quality of life. The course is provided free of charge to all students through the Virtual Campus for Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization.

To enroll in the Social Marketing for Public Health Program begin the course, you should complete the Introduction to Social Marketing for Public Health self-paced course.

ESTIMATED DURATION OF THE COURSE
To complete the course, you will need approximately 10 hours.

COURSE STRUCTURE
The learning activities in each module are organized as follows:

• Introduction
• Initial Planning in Social Marketing for Public Health
• Developing a Social Marketing and Communication Strategy
• Development and Implementation of a Social Marketing Program for Public Health
• Monitoring and Evaluation of a Social Marketing Program for Public Health

METHODOLOGY
In the course design, we have combined multimedia learning resources such as video reviews with practice exercises, where your participation and commitment are the foundation of learning. The learning activities in each module are organized into lessons and evaluations.

The lessons of each module constitute the basic content of the course and you will be able to review them independently. They are shown in interactive video format and with an approximate duration of 15 minutes each. In them you will find the key concepts. You will also be able to download the content as an accessible PDF file.

COURSE COMPETENCIES
This course provides opportunities to develop competencies related to:

• Supporting people to improve their knowledge and behaviors related to health.
• Applying a systematic process to develop, implement and evaluate social marketing strategies.
• Applying principles of evidence based practice.
• Applying a collaborative process for building a social marketing strategy.
• Adapting communication according to research findings and needs of the target population.