Modules / Courses

In 2014, Health Systems Global's Thematic Working Group on Teaching and Learning Health Policy and Systems Research conducted research to document health policy and systems research (HPSR) teaching and training programmes relevant to low- and middle-income countries. The study explored issues such as the countries and organisations in which the courses were taught, courses' target audiences, course content and teaching practices, and gaps in training.

It has been nearly a decade since the open access release of the highly regarded master's-level course Health Policy Analysis. The original open access materials supported the teaching of the course in a traditional face-to-face classroom setting.

Over the last few years, however, the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africa has also taught this course as part of its distance education activities. This required the conversion of the original open access materials into a format that is appropriate to distance education.

We are now pleased to offer the 2016 version of the distance education materials for download by anyone who would like to offer this course via a distance learning platform. As before, the materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.

Please click here to download the Microsoft Word or PDF versions of the materials.

In December 2015, faculty from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and West China Research Centre for Rural Health Development (WCRCRHD) ran a short course on health systems research methods in China. This short course drew on CHEPSAA's open access module Introduction to Health Policy and Systems Research.

Here, we share key course materials used in the training in China. While some of these are the same as or very similar to CHEPSAA's Introduction to Health Policy and Systems Research, the materials also contain adaptations of CHEPSAA's course and entirely new material.

The graphic below highlights some of the most important similarities and differences between CHEPSAA's open access materials and the materials used in the course in China, so that interested educators don't have to work through all the materials themselves.

In 2016, the KEYSTONE India initiative released 13 open access health policy and systems research (HPSR) modules (38 video lectures and 43 PowerPoint presentations). 

This free online course, offered by Johns Hopkins University, introduces participants to systems thinking and systems models in public health.

This module covers topics such as the definition of a health system; frameworks for analyzing health systems; complexity in health systems and the importance of agents and their mindsets, interests and power; and leading change in health systems. It consists of a course outline, notes for facilitators, PowerPoint slides, case studies and handouts.

This module covers topics such as the definition of health policy and systems research; generating and framing questions; the important role of researchers' own perspectives and disciplines in research; study design; rigour and ethics. It consists of a course outline, notes for facilitators, PowerPoint slides and handouts.

The module consists of course outline, teaching materials and facilitator notes for health policy analysis. It takes the form of a 1-week course and out-of-class assignments. Designed to be taught at post-graduate level (Health Policy Analysis in Africa (HEPAA)). 

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The module introduces the scope and context of human resource management in the health sector. It covers the following topics: human resources management in context; being a human resource manager and managing people (University of the Western Cape). 

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