Current Course Offerings
Students select 4 courses (3 credits each) from the listing below. Students may take up to 1 methods course (3 credits) to count for the certificate (see approved methods courses below). Additional MMC 6936 Special Topics in health communication will be offered and could count toward the certificate with approval. To receive approval, contact gradapps@jou.ufl.edu.
Choose 4 courses from the course options: (all 3 credits each, letter-graded)
- MMC 6409 Science/Health Communication
- MMC 6806 E-Health: Digital Communication in Health
- MMC 6417 Mass Media & Health
- MMC 6936 Family and Health Communication across the Life Span
- MMC 6936 Communication in Healthcare
- MMC 6936 Interpersonal Health Communication Theory
- MMC 6936 Translational Health Communication
- MMC 6936 Science Policy
Methods Courses with Health Communication Focus (only one course can be chosen from this list):
- MMC 6936 Systematic Review Methods (in Health, Medicine and Science)
- MMC 6936 Advanced Qualitative Methods: Narrative Health Research
Science / Health Communication
Course Description: This seminar is designed as a broad overview of the fields of and theories used to investigate and understand science and health communication and communication’s effect on public understanding.
eHealth: Digital Communication in Health Care
Course Description: This course explores the growing applications of information technologies for health care delivery, risk communication, communication campaigns, health information dissemination, health education, disease prevention, health behavior change, coordination of care, and health care delivery system management.
Mass Media & Health
Course Description: This course introduces students to current research on the positive and negative influences of mass media on individual behavior and the public health environment. We address the uses and effects of social media and other online information, entertainment content, advertising and news, examining impacts on individual health and health policy.
Family and Health Communication across the Life Span
Course Description: This course explores how family communication and health intersect across the entirety of our lives, both in the home/familial environments and in clinical settings. We will identify the centrality of family communication to our physical, psychological, and social health. To do so, we will apply a broad theoretical framework known as a life-span lens.
Interpersonal Health Communication Theory
Course Description: We will examine the value of an interpersonal communication lens in health-related behavioral research. We will explore how to utilize theory in a way that enhances our ability as behavioral scientists, practitioners, and researchers to improve the health of society in meaningful and long-lasting ways. In doing so we will draw largely from theories developed or used in the interdisciplinary fields of interpersonal (IPC) and family communication (FC).
Communication in Healthcare
Course Description: In this course, we will examine the role interpersonal communication plays in healthcare, across the continuum from prevention to end of life. We will explore descriptive studies as well as intervention studies (e.g., How can communication in healthcare be improved?) We will consider the roles of physicians, nurses, allied health providers, patients, and families.
Translational Health Communication
Course Description: This seminar focuses on how principles of communication science can inform the development of strategies that enhance the accessibility, understandability and usability of science in the public sphere.
Science Policy
Course Description: Given the central role played by science, technology and health, it is critical to develop knowledge of the interface of science, technology and decision making. This class attempts to help you understand how these relate. How do political or social issues affect the construction of a particular science/health issue? How do findings in a particular science/health issue inform the development of policy in that area? What role do the media play? In other words, how is scientific knowledge generated, presented, understood and applied as various political forces shape the development of policy in that scientific/health area?
Advanced Qualitative Methods: Narrative Health Research
Course Description: This course provides students with training in how to conduct narrative inquiry in health and science research with a heavy focus on integrative narrative across the research process: from theoretical framework and sensitizing constructs to method selection to narrative and thematic analysis.
Systematic Review Methods (in Health, Science, and Medicine)
Course Description: In this course, we will examine and practice the science and rigorous methodology of conducting a systematic review, using the PRISMA guidelines. Students will finish the course 1) as a critical consumers of systematic reviews; and 2) equipped with the skills and experience necessary to produce their own systematic reviews.