THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Health in Social Science : School of Health in Social Science

Postgraduate Course: Complex Interventions: an engaged approach to development and evaluation (SHSS11008)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Health in Social Science CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe challenges that students will face in their careers are becoming more complex and interrelated, especially in the field of health, for example wicked problems and syndemics. These challenges necessitate similarly complex interventions, and this course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to evaluate challenges and develop appropriate interventions (6 Steps for Quality Intervention Develop (6SQuID)).

The aim of this course is to give students an understanding of the steps involved in developing and evaluating interventions including stakeholder engagement to ensure the intervention is feasible, acceptable, sustainable and most importantly likely to be effective. This course will be relevant to those who may be involved in the development or evaluation of health or related interventions, or simply students who are keen to know about the stages of intervention development and a range of evaluation methods, both experimental and non-experimental.
Course description This course will be offered as an option to students undertaking the MSc Advanced Nursing programme as well as other similar masters courses (e.g. public health, physical activity and health, psychology).

The challenges that students will face in their careers are becoming more complex and interrelated, for example wicked problems and syndemics. These challenges necessitate similarly complex interventions, and this course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to evaluate challenges and develop appropriate interventions. Within the course the students will be walked through the 6 Steps for Quality Intervention Develop (6SQuID), by some of the team who developed this process. 6SQuID has been recommended by funders like the UKRI as an intervention development process. The six steps are:
1. Understanding the problem and its causes
2. Identifying modifiable causal factors
3. Identifying how to bring about change (theory of change)
4. Identifying how to deliver change mechanisms (theory of action)
5. Testing and adaptive the intervention
6. Collecting sufficient evidence of effectiveness to proceed to a rigorous evaluation

These six steps will be taught over 10 weeks, with 1 hour of lecture followed by 1 hour of workshop most weeks. Within the workshops the students will apply the material from the lecture developing their own theoretical intervention, with support and feedback from the course organisers. Initially, the students will work in small groups (3-4 members) to develop an intervention for a challenge of their choosing. They will then present the logic model/programme theory (the combination of the theories of action and change) for their intervention for formative feedback, before separating to work on individual evaluation plans for their intervention. The classroom experiences will be supplemented with reading and other material (e.g. videos) on the course topic. The workshops will be opportunities for the students to work in their groups to implement the material from the preceding lecture, with input from the course staff, providing additional formative feedback.

The course will primarily be delivered by members of the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, who regularly apply the 6SQuID model with a variety of stakeholders. This will give the students the opportunity to learn from a wide range of case studies. Alongside Andrew Williams, the course organisation and delivery will be supported by Divya Sivaramakrishnan and Larry Doi.

N.B. This course is a revised and renewed version of a course previously run for CMVM within their Masters of Public Health programme.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 10, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10, Formative Assessment Hours 2, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 172 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 1. 1,200-1,500 word logic model/programme theory developed by the group (30%)
2. 1,200-1,500 word evaluation plan (individual work) (70%)
Feedback Each of the weekly workshops will provide an opportunity for feedback, as the students develop their ideas for the summative assessment throughout the course.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Apply established processes to develop interventions related to recognised health challenges
  2. Synthesize information from research evidence, theory and stakeholder (including public) experience to inform intervention development
  3. Demonstrate the development of theories or change and action into a logic model or programme theory
  4. Formulate an appropriate and feasible evaluation approach to health interventions
  5. Assess the ethical and logistical implications of health intervention development and evaluation
Reading List
Jepson, R., McAteer, J., Williams, A. J., Doi, L. & Buelo, A. (2022) Developing public health interventions: a step-by-step guide. Los Angeles, SAGE.
Leviton, L. C., Khan, L. K., Rog, D., Dawkins, N. & Cotton, D. (2010) Evaluability assessment to improve public health policies, programs, and practices. Annu Rev Public Health, 31, 213-33.
Koorts, H. & Rutter, H. (2021) A systems approach to scale-up for population health improvement. Health Syst Policy Res, 19, 1: 27.
Sanson-Fisher, R. W., D'Este, C. A., Carey, M. L., Noble, N. & Paul, C. L. (2014) Evaluation of systems-oriented public health interventions: alternative research designs. Annual Review of Public Health, 35, 9-27.
Skivington, K., Matthews, L., Simpson, S. A., Craig, P., Baird, J., Blazeby, J. M., Boyd, K. A., Craig, N., French, D. P., McIntosh, E., Petticrew, M., Rycroft-Malone, J., White, M. & Moore, L. (2021) A new framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions: update of Medical Research Council guidance. BMJ, 374, n2061.
Wight, D., Wimbush, E., Jepson, R. & Doi, L. (2016) Six steps in quality intervention development (6SQuID). J Epidemiol Community Health, 70, 5: 520-5.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Through the focus on real world challenges this course will contribute to the development of our students mindsets of curiosity and learning in order to make positive differences locally and globally. The engaged approach on which the course focuses involves creative and research-based processes for problem solving, developing the students critical and reflective thinking. The group work aspects of the course will support the students to be effective and influential contributors, while they will have the opportunity to deliver written, graphic and presentation-based communications. By building on their existing experiences (life and academic) we hope to engage and expand students passions towards fulfilling their potential.
KeywordsIntervention development,evaluation,complex intervention,evaluability assessment,public health
Contacts
Course organiserDr Andrew Williams
Tel:
Email: andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr David Morris
Tel: (0131 6)51 3969
Email: dmorri14@exseed.ed.ac.uk
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