Happy Spring! We’re excited to provide an update on our efforts to create educational resources that support productive public dialogue. These resources share the knowledge we've gathered on how to build trust in your communications, and within your communities, with the aid of some online coursework and interactive experiences.
A new iteration of our ARTT Curriculum now aims at supporting public health communicators who seek to provide accurate information in trust-building ways. Building on our curricular work from the ARTT-LEO project, we’ve created a pilot course that teaches the different techniques of our updated Communication Model. In this latest version, we’ve incorporated examples and scenarios relevant to public and community health, and built on feedback to make the learning experience even more user-friendly.
We also wanted to offer different ways for course participants to practice what they’ve learned. That’s why we’ve developed a new, interactive Public Health Communicator Game to complement our Curriculum. This choose-your-own-adventure game presents different realistic scenarios that test new learners in public health on different methods from the ARTT Communication Model, helping them practice how different communication methods can build trust with their audience as well as get familiar with common communication challenges in public health.
To put these projects to the test, we've been collaborating with Professor Monica Schoch-Spana at the Texas A&M University–San Antonio and students in public and community health. Their insights have been invaluable in ensuring our resources are fit for purpose.
“The game demonstrates how trust-building is an ongoing goal,” said Professor Schoch-Spana, and illustrates “how it’s important to see communication as both relationship building and exchanging information.”
Students found the game’s scenarios relatable and helpful in teaching “how to communicate to people, how to stay calm and how to not overreact.” One student noted the game taught the importance of not only transparency and honesty in communication, but also of consistency: “a wrong answer affects the trust of the person you are communicating with drastically.”
Looking ahead, we’re hoping to make these tools more widely available – but we need your help to make them as helpful and useful as possible. If you or your organization wants access to the latest version of these resources and would be willing to provide feedback, please shoot us an email.
