eCourse on Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Programs

The course is open to:

• Applicants with graduate/ post-graduate qualifications with relevant understanding of public health.
• Applicants currently engaged in public health related activities such as health professionals working with National Health Mission (NHM) and directorates of health services at central, state, and district levels (Health Programs:- Integrated Disease Surveillance Project, National Vector Borne Disease Control Program, HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health Programs etc.); international and local non-governmental agencies; and academic and research institutions.

Eligible candidates will be screened by a selection committee based on their application and statement of purpose. The decision of selection committee will be final.

Policymakers, program staff and researchers face many questions related to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of public health programs in developing countries. M&E skills provide answers to these questions and are crucial to the successful design, implementation, and tracking of program progress and impact of public health programs. The eCourse on Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Programs aims to strengthen the capacity of public health professionals actively engaged in the health sector. This course is designed for global health professionals to develop core competencies to design and implement M&E activities in both government & non- government sectors.

Aim and Objectives:

This course aims to strengthen the capacity and update current knowledge about M&E of professional working in the field of public health globally. By the end of this course, participants/ professionals will be able to:

• Develop a monitoring and evaluation plan for a public health program;
• Describe the role of monitoring and evaluation in the design of public health programs
• Formulate a conceptual framework on how the program or intervention will lead to specific health outcomes and impact, when given a set of health program objectives and activities
• Describe the elements (inputs, processes, outputs, outcomes) that provide the context for monitoring and evaluation activities
• Describe the types of monitoring systems, sources of data, and their uses
• Develop program indicators based on an understanding of program-specific criteria
• Describe evaluation designs and their relative strengths and weaknesses; and Discuss the issues involved in measuring program impact.

Contents:

The curriculum will cover the broad content areas of Monitoring and Evaluation including: Introduction to M&E, Overview of M&E Plans, Frameworks and indicators, Gender integration in M&E, Information sources and systems, Routine and non-routine data, Data demand and information use, and Evaluation designs. The course will enable participants to develop M&E Plan for any public health program in a stepwise manner.

Teaching and Training Methodology:

The course utilizes a blended online teaching/learning technique. The basic course structure includes a combination of interactive online computer-based sessions, online virtual lectures, assessments, and recommended readings from journal articles and textbooks in a modular format. Online learning sessions will be conducted by designated faculty members and students will be able to log on from their laptops/personal computers. Participants will be assessed based on successful completion of session examination at the end of each session and development of M&E plan by the end of the course.