Public Health Digital Badges
We offer two public health digital badges: a Mental Health Navigator Skills Badge and a Public Health Lecture Series Experiential Badge.
Learn about accessing mental and emotional health services, and/or increase your knowledge.
What is a Digital Badge?
A digital badge is a graphic verification of the skills you have mastered after successfully completing some form of professional learning or an experience in which you have participated. A digital badge is an icon, but it is not a static image. It is clickable and houses information such as the issuing institution, the date earned, the criteria required to earn the badge, and the evidence that shows that you have met the required criteria. Digital badges are a great way to share your professional learning achievements and new competencies with employers, colleagues, friends, and family via social platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, or through an open backpack.
For more information, visit Micro-Credentials & Badges.
Mental Health Navigator Badge
This skills-based badge will give you the skills needed to assist community members in accessing mental and emotional health services. The navigator training includes participating in a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training; an international education program proven to be effective in teaching adults how to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges. The MHFA training is an eight-hour training course designed to give members of the public key skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis.
After you successfully complete this badge, you will:
- Be able to assist someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
- Feel more comfortable managing a crisis situation and have greater mental health literacy.
- Have the skills to better understand and respond to signs of mental illness.
- Gave greater confidence in providing help to others, a greater likelihood of advising people to seek professional help, improved concordance with health professionals about treatments, and decreased stigmatizing attitudes.
How to Apply:
For more information contact solanoconnex@gmail.com
User-Centered Design of Digital Health Tools Skills Badge
This course combines needs assessment methods, user-centered design principles, and an agile approach to designing digital health tools. Students will learn the essentials for designing digital health applications, including Virtual Reality (VR) tools. The course will focus on making these tools accessible and user-friendly, especially for vulnerable groups like formerly incarcerated individuals. Upon completion of the course, students will be equipped to tackle public health challenges through the design of better digital health tools - contributing to better public health outcomes.
Learners will participate in a 6-week course requiring 3–5 hours of work per week. To complete the course and earn a non-credit badge, students must successfully complete the following:
- Individual Project: Learners will develop a spatial prototype and a personal VR concept.
- Quiz: Learners will demonstrate their understanding of core VR and user-centered design principles through a short quiz.
- Group Project: Learners will collaborate on the design and presentation of a health-focused VR prototype and present it at the end of the course.
How to Apply:
Enroll in Course for the User-Centered Design of Digital Health Tools Skills Badge
Public Health Lecture Series Experiential Badge
The series provides an introduction to public health topics through an innovative speaker series, reflection, and discussions of social determinants of health. The focus of the series is determined on an annual basis. The series includes individual and panel presentations from experts in the field of public health.
There are multiple badges available, one for each Public Health Lecture Series. Each series contains five to six sessions that include a lecture or panel presentation, followed by a question-and-answer period. Each session is approximately 90 minutes to two hours in length. You are required to review the recording and complete a short reflection assignment for each session in a given series.
After successfully completing this course, you will have a better understanding of:
- How structural factors and community characteristics influence an annual thematic topic related to public health.
- The health, community, and quality of life consequences of the specific public health theme of your badge series.
- Multiple public health strategies to address the specific public health theme of your badge series.
How to Apply:
Enroll in Courses for the Public Health Lecture Series Experiential Badge