Health Literacy eCourse

Course Overview:  

Health Confiaza is a community-wide health literacy nonprofit housed at The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Community Health Clubs (Clubs) are community-based peer groups dedicated to creating social change by sharing knowledge, normalizing preventive behaviors, and participating in collective action to address the social determinants of health and promote health equity. This model, applied within a framework of community-based participatory research, provides the venue for Community Health Workers (CHWs) and natural community leaders to deliver factually correct and culturally appropriate COVID-19 prevention and health-focused content to groups of 20-30 people per Club. Within these social networks, peers learn from each other, establish agreed upon behaviors and social norms and benefit from a community-based structure that intentionally connects people with needed health and social services. Once established, trained CHWs and natural community leaders help the members of their Club to prioritize health issues beyond COVID-19 to increase the resilience of each community. 

As an instructional designer for Health Confianza on this COVID-19 curriculum, I collaborated closely with university professors, health workers (SMEs), curriculum facilitators, a graphic designer, and the communications manager. My responsibilities included conducting a thorough needs assessment, redesigning the curriculum with aligned learning objectives, and developing additional resources and tools to evaluate implementation success. 

My main priorities for this course design were:

• Actionable: Design content that enables members to directly apply what they learn to their daily lives.

• Measurable: Develop evaluation methods to demonstrate that the curriculum effectively supports members' learning needs.

• Engaging and Cohesive: Ensure that language, tone, visual layout, and content progression align with Health Confianza’s goals, creating a cohesive and accessible learning experience.

Below are select elements of the overall course. Most content remains proprietary and cannot be shared.

Challenge:

The above eCourse builds upon a ten-part instructor-led training (ILT) series I developed for Health Confianza, a community-wide health literacy organization. Delivered by community leaders, the sessions target club members who often encounter challenges such as job instability, housing insecurity, and limited transportation access. These barriers can impact consistent attendance, so this eCourse provides a flexible learning alternative, enabling members to access content from home or on their phones at their own pace. 

Solution: 

To support members who can’t attend in-person sessions, this course is designed for asynchronous learning, providing flexibility and continuity. Members can learn at their own pace, enabling them to stay engaged even with changing personal circumstances. 

Tools: Rise 360, Canva, Google Docs

Result: 

95% alignment between the designed curriculum and predefined academic goals, as assessed through peer and academic review. In addition, we received positive feedback from facilitators and participants about this flexible learning alternative.