Course Overview
Public engagement is the practice of establishing intentional and meaningful interactions between scholars and different publics for the purpose of mutual learning or other social benefits. Although public engagement utilizes many of the same principles, skills, and formats as outreach or communication, one key difference is that public engagement prioritizes building partnerships with the audience to create societal impact.
Strategies for Effective Public Engagement is a FREE, 3-week course that will guide you through fundamental principles, skills, and strategies to succeed in your public engagement projects. Whether you are new to public engagement or simply want to improve upon what you have already accomplished, this course is for you!
A Course for Anyone Interested in Public Engagement
This course is designed for anyone who is interested in, planning, or executing a public engagement project. We discuss why you should get involved with public engagement and how it can enhance your personal and professional development. We also cover how to plan and execute a public engagement project and ultimately, how to assess and iterate on your work to continue to improve and grow.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the benefits of public engagement
- Reflect on your personal and professional motivations for public engagement
- Define public engagement and describe how to do it well and ethically
- Apply communication skills, like listening and receiving, to public engagement
- Define your goals and desired impacts
- Apply strategies to plan, execute, and assess public engagement projects
Course Structure
The course includes 3 modules with activities, reflection questions, readings, and additional resources to help you ideate, plan, and execute public engagement activities.
- Module 0 – Getting Started: Outlines the structure of the course, how to engage with other participants, and how to successfully complete this course.
- Module 1 – Public Engagement: Skills, Strategies, and Considerations: Focuses on why and how you should get involved in public engagement and key skills needed to be successful.
- Module 2 – Starting, Executing, and Assessing a Public Engagement Project: Reviews the steps to plan, execute, and assess a public engagement project.
Built with Your Schedule in Mind
We built this course for busy scholars, researchers, or practitioners like you! The modules are meant to be completed in about three weeks, allowing you to do course activities while attending to other responsibilities. Each module consists of 1-6 brief videos and takes about 1 to 3 hours of work to complete.
Requirements
There are no requirements needed to take this course.
Format & Certification
Strategies for Effective Public Engagement is a self-paced online course. Once you pass the course, you can apply to receive a digital badge and Certificate of Completion to share and keep for your records. Passing requires you to complete all the required activities for the course, which equals 60% of the total activities.
