Introductory Module: Social and Behavior Change Communication
Module Summary
Human behavior is often linked to health outcomes. For example, consistent and correct use of condoms prevents sexually transmitted infections; using mosquito nets helps prevent malaria; boiling drinking water helps prevent cholera. In such cases, communicating about the effectiveness of these methods of prevention is vital to behavior change. However, it is important to note that human behaviors are often the result of a myriad of factors including access to services, a supportive policy environment, and other social factors. Human behaviors can also result in significant social changes. There may be social or cultural reasons why people do not use condoms consistently and correctly, such as the desire to reproduce or religious reasons. It is therefore important to consider the use of communication in addressing some of these factors.
Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) refers to the use of communication strategies to facilitate change at individual and social levels. The SBCC framework outlines C-Change's approach to SBCC and has three guiding characteristics:
1. SBCC is an interactive, researched, and planned process, based on theories of change that aims to change social norms as well as individual behaviors.
2. It uses a sociological model to find an effective tipping point for change, either addressing knowledge, skills, and motivation needed; desired modification for social and gender norms; or what would constitute an enabling environment for change.
3. It operates through three key strategies: advocacy, social mobilization, and behavior change communication.
To illustrate how change occurs and the role that communication plays in those processes, please take a look at the following two pieces.
1. Soul City’s One Love Campaign uses communication to reduce multiple concurrent partnerships. The campaign uses advocacy and social and community mobilization strategies to create a conducive environment for change (social change). Communication is also used to facilitate change at an individual level (behavior change). See the One Love Campaign's booklet here:
2. The story of how a practice such as foot binding in China has been discontinued is a good example of the process of changing social norms. Please take a look at this story by Kwame Anthony Appia, New York Times, October 22nd, 2010:
Think about some of the principles demonstrated in the two examples that have guided the processes of change and refer to them in your assignments whenever appropriate later in the module.
This module introduces you to the elements and principles of SBCC, including theories and models used to guide SBCC efforts. It will help you to understand the importance of conducting evidence-based SBCC and provide some practical tools for developing SBCC programs. SBCC is used to address a number of development issues. This module focuses on the use of SBCC for health-related outcomes.
Each module is broken into units. Each unit has the following structure:
Introduction - An overview of the unit.
Challenge - The central position or issue to be submitted to the community site, often presented as a real-life scenario.
Activities - Short exercises to aid in the completion of the Challenge. Activities might be in the form of readings, discussions, videos or audio.
Reflections - Questions that reapply and broaden knowledge on the unit topic.
Units are designed to engage you around a Challenge. You are encouraged to engage in enquiry using the module resources and other resources that you may find on your own to most effectively respond to the challenge. The activities should also aid you in forming a response to the Challenge. Units are designed this way as this kind of enquiry around a project or challenge most closely resembles the way that we work. You are of course encouraged to integrate your existing knowledge from work into your learning and vice versa.
Developing and becoming part of a trusted community of practice is one of the most important aspects of effective learning in an online environment. For those who sign up for a C-Change course offered by Ohio University, access to a community of practice is provided. The C-Change Community site is built in Ning. Ning is an online community platform very similar to Facebook and other popular social online platforms. As with Facebook, you need to place a profile photo and some information about yourself into your personal page in the community. This will allow other members of the community to get to know you.
This page will give you information about Ning and the features it provides for collaboration and community. http://about.ning.com/product.php
Here, we will use the discussion tool built into the Wiki to engage in threaded discussions. You will generally find links to discussion posts at the bottom of each Unit's page. When applicable, you are also urged to read and comment on the responses of other participants to the community site. An appropriate response would take any or all of a fellow participant’s posting and agree with the posting, disagree, provide a new perspective or propose an alternative response. Please be respectful in your discourse. We are all continually learning. Tactful and informed opinions add value and depth to the C-Change community.
At the end of each week, the facilitator will summarize the discussions. At the end of the unit, the facilitator will comment on each participant's response to the Challenge. The facilitator will also be involved in a formative fashion to spark discussion that will best lead to well-formed responses to the Challenge.
Each unit will require you to submit at least one and often multiple deliverables. You should contribute to the discussion section for each challenge. The "activities" sections have optional discussion questions. Each Unit has a required "Reflection" that you will contribute via the discussion area. All deliverables will be made to the discussion forum associated with the unit. To add your contribution to the discussion, you should do the following:
Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the links to the discussion forum for the unit you're working on.
Click on the post you are working on - Challenge, Activities, or Reflection.
Read the assignment, if you need to, and add your contribution.
Once you have submitted you will be able to view your submission and any comments on it from the Discussion Forum.
You are encouraged to keep any exercises from this module as you may want to refer to them in other modules. For example, the Tip –Sheet with pros and cons of data collection methods may be useful in later modules.
Before you begin, check the upper-left side navigation buttons.
Module Home – You are currently on the Module Home page. This is the main landing for each module. The Module Home will have the general explanation for the module as well as the learning outcomes.
Units – Each module is broken into several units. Each unit covers a unique “chunk” of content to enable you to achieve the course learning outcomes. Each unit also has its own unique learning outcomes. See above for more information on unit structure.
Concepts- The most important take-aways from each module.
Readings - Each module will be accompanied by reading material, audio, video or other forms of media to supplement your knowledge. This page provides links to all supporting resources for the module and is organized by unit.
Theory- The practice of SBCC is based on a set of theories from several communication - related fields. This link will take you to the theory page, where you can get information about the theory behind the SBCC concept you are learning about. You will also find links to specific sections of the theory page throughout each unit.
Back to Top Learn More About C-Change Capacity Building Opportunities
C-Change has developed a capacity strengthening package with mutually supportive short-term and long-term training programs, delivery formats, and tools and resources focused on social and behavior change communication (SBCC).
Self-paced online and face-to-face modules that together provide important support to regional, national and local capacity strengthening efforts focused on developing SBCC competencies.
A facilitated online training course for SBCC implementers on media monitoring for improved news media coverage of health and development issues (click here). Available to organizations registering 12 - 20 participants (no individual enrollment). Please contact David Mould, Online C-Change Modules Director, at mould@ohio.edu for more information.
A training module for frontline health workers in SBCC. For more information, contact the C-Change Program at cchangeCS@fhi360.org.
Training at certificated short-course and master's level through the Master of Public Health’s SBCC track at the University of the Witwatersrand. This Center of Excellence is the first of its kind in Southern Africa. Please contact sara.nieuwoudt@wits.ac.za for more information.
Multiple high-quality training resources available through the C-Capacity Online Resource Center. C-Capacity offers resources, practical tools, supplemental training resources, opportunities for SBCC and dialogue, and a bi-monthly newsletter. Other resources are on the C-Change site here under E-Publications.
The flexibility of this package allows for multiple synergies among its various resources. Face-to-face and online modules can be used interchangeably or in support of each other; NGO-based SBCC implementers as well as students at tertiary institutions will be able to study for certificates online, or use the online courses as part of their training at the Center of Excellence at University of the Witwatersrand.
Please contact David Mould, Online C-Modules Director, at mould@ohio.edu for further information.
Module Summary | Learning Outcomes | Module Overview | Community | Deliverables | Navigation | More About C-Change
Introductory Module: Social and Behavior Change Communication
Module Summary
Human behavior is often linked to health outcomes. For example, consistent and correct use of condoms prevents sexually transmitted infections; using mosquito nets helps prevent malaria; boiling drinking water helps prevent cholera. In such cases, communicating about the effectiveness of these methods of prevention is vital to behavior change. However, it is important to note that human behaviors are often the result of a myriad of factors including access to services, a supportive policy environment, and other social factors. Human behaviors can also result in significant social changes. There may be social or cultural reasons why people do not use condoms consistently and correctly, such as the desire to reproduce or religious reasons. It is therefore important to consider the use of communication in addressing some of these factors.
Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) refers to the use of communication strategies to facilitate change at individual and social levels.
The SBCC framework outlines C-Change's approach to SBCC and has three guiding characteristics:
To illustrate how change occurs and the role that communication plays in those processes, please take a look at the following two pieces.
- 1. Soul City’s One Love Campaign uses communication to reduce multiple concurrent partnerships. The campaign uses advocacy and social and community mobilization strategies to create a conducive environment for change (social change). Communication is also used to facilitate change at an individual level (behavior change). See the One Love Campaign's booklet here:
onelove_english_final.pdf
- Details
- Download
- 2 MB
- 2. The story of how a practice such as foot binding in China has been discontinued is a good example of the process of changing social norms. Please take a look at this story by Kwame Anthony Appia, New York Times, October 22nd, 2010:
Footbinding_SocialChange.pdf
- Details
- Download
- 149 KB
Think about some of the principles demonstrated in the two examples that have guided the processes of change and refer to them in your assignments whenever appropriate later in the module.This module introduces you to the elements and principles of SBCC, including theories and models used to guide SBCC efforts. It will help you to understand the importance of conducting evidence-based SBCC and provide some practical tools for developing SBCC programs. SBCC is used to address a number of development issues. This module focuses on the use of SBCC for health-related outcomes.
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Learning Outcomes
At the end of the module, you will be able to:
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Module Overview
There are four units in this module. You will spend ONE week on each of the following units:
Each module is broken into units. Each unit has the following structure:
Units are designed to engage you around a Challenge. You are encouraged to engage in enquiry using the module resources and other resources that you may find on your own to most effectively respond to the challenge. The activities should also aid you in forming a response to the Challenge. Units are designed this way as this kind of enquiry around a project or challenge most closely resembles the way that we work. You are of course encouraged to integrate your existing knowledge from work into your learning and vice versa.
Back to Top
Community
The C-Change Community site is built in Ning. Ning is an online community platform very similar to Facebook and other popular social online platforms. As with Facebook, you need to place a profile photo and some information about yourself into your personal page in the community. This will allow other members of the community to get to know you.
This page will give you information about Ning and the features it provides for collaboration and community. http://about.ning.com/product.php
Here, we will use the discussion tool built into the Wiki to engage in threaded discussions. You will generally find links to discussion posts at the bottom of each Unit's page. When applicable, you are also urged to read and comment on the responses of other participants to the community site. An appropriate response would take any or all of a fellow participant’s posting and agree with the posting, disagree, provide a new perspective or propose an alternative response. Please be respectful in your discourse. We are all continually learning. Tactful and informed opinions add value and depth to the C-Change community.
At the end of each week, the facilitator will summarize the discussions. At the end of the unit, the facilitator will comment on each participant's response to the Challenge. The facilitator will also be involved in a formative fashion to spark discussion that will best lead to well-formed responses to the Challenge.
Back to Top
Module Deliverables
Each unit will require you to submit at least one and often multiple deliverables. You should contribute to the discussion section for each challenge. The "activities" sections have optional discussion questions. Each Unit has a required "Reflection" that you will contribute via the discussion area. All deliverables will be made to the discussion forum associated with the unit. To add your contribution to the discussion, you should do the following:
Once you have submitted you will be able to view your submission and any comments on it from the Discussion Forum.
You are encouraged to keep any exercises from this module as you may want to refer to them in other modules. For example, the Tip –Sheet with pros and cons of data collection methods may be useful in later modules.
Back to Top
Navigation
Before you begin, check the upper-left side navigation buttons.
Back to Top
Learn More About C-Change Capacity Building Opportunities
C-Change has developed a capacity strengthening package with mutually supportive short-term and long-term training programs, delivery formats, and tools and resources focused on social and behavior change communication (SBCC).
The flexibility of this package allows for multiple synergies among its various resources. Face-to-face and online modules can be used interchangeably or in support of each other; NGO-based SBCC implementers as well as students at tertiary institutions will be able to study for certificates online, or use the online courses as part of their training at the Center of Excellence at University of the Witwatersrand.
Please contact David Mould, Online C-Modules Director, at mould@ohio.edu for further information.
Back to Top