Evidence Review on Social and Behavior Change for Child Survival in Africa Scaling Up with Mass Media and ICT

HC3 is led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU∙CCP) in partnership with Management Sciences for Health (MSH), NetHope, Population Services International (PSI), Ogilvy Public Relations and Internews. The project addresses important health issues such as child survival, family planning, maternal and newborn health, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. HC3 aims to build capacity in developing and implementing health communication programs in middle- and low-income countries by determining the most effective and efficient methods for facilitating and sustaining the learning process for social and behavior change communication (SBCC) professionals. Developing and implementing effective learning processes in these countries can be particularly challenging due to low access to health and education programs, lack of available resources, and weak infrastructure. HC3 seeks to examine the use of blended learning as an approach to build capacity in individuals, non-governmental organizations, government, and others, particularly to design, develop, implement, and evaluate SBCC programs. Blended learning is a combination of various learning media and environments that reinforce and accelerate mastery and application of knowledge and skills. This approach is seen as an effective way to strengthen programs through combining existing materials and various modalities, and to lower the costs associated with face-to-face instruction in low-resource locations. The use of technology as part of a blended learning approach has been widely recognized as a way to bridge educational barriers in low- and middle-income countries. Research has shown that the results of blended learning approaches are similar to, and in some cases better than, traditional classroom approaches. HC3 conducted a literature review to better understand the implications of implementing a blended learning approach for strengthening capacity in designing, implementing, and evaluating SBCC programs. The aim of the literature review was to determine promising practices for utilizing blended learning in SBCC capacity building activities, identify considerations for designing the correct "blend" of learning components, and examine the implications of using blended learning in low-resource settings. Because of the lack of literature directly related to the use of blended learning in SBCC capacity building, the paper discusses findings on blended learning for capacity building in general, which can then be applied more specifically to SBCC. The literature review found that blended learning approaches offer efficient and effective options for providing learning opportunities in low-resource settings for a variety of subjects, including capacity building for SBCC. However, while blended learning programs have been used in a variety of contexts and curricula, more focused research on its implementation in relation to capacity building for social and behavior change communication is needed to come to a better understanding of how to maximize its impact in this area. In particular, research should move beyond initial knowledge gain and look towards long-term application of knowledge and skills. This shift would require that ongoing follow-up be incorporated into the course design and that resources are dedicated to this purpose.