CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — 140th APHA Annual Meeting

Theme: Prevention and Wellness Across the Lifespan

APHA-Learning Institute (APHA-LI)

Submission Deadline: Saturday, February 11, 2012

All elements are REQUIRED

Contact Person
The proposal must identify one person who will be the contact person for the course. This person handles all communication with APHA, shares all relevant information with Learning Institute (LI) faculty, obtains any information/materials requested by APHA from faculty, provides APHA Education staff with all required logistic information by deadlines and cooperates with APHA Education staff to ensure compliance with CE requirements.

Proposed title
Although this might not be the final course title, this is the one that will be used as a tentative title (capitalize only the first letter in each word, do not double quote the title). The contact person may edit the title until Friday, February 10, 2012 deadline. After that, the title will be published in the early advertisements for the Annual Meeting and thus may not be changed.

Topic area
Select your topic area.

Keywords
The public will have access to the online program, which has the function of allowing the potential target audience to identify the courses of interest by typing in a keyword and performing a search. Please select up to two keywords that you think would best indicate your course content.

Learning Areas
All continuing education learning content must be of sound science or professional practice an serve to maintain, develop or increase the knowledge, skills and professional competence of the health professional. Learning content should be evidence-based if available.

Important! If you have any questions about the Learning Area(s) selection in this particular step only, please contact Annette Ferebee, but we strongly recommend you to select at least one Learning Area and continue with your submission while waiting for the reply. You can access your abstract submission and modify the selection at anytime before the deadline.

Partnership
This may not be applicable for you. However if you and your faculty happen to be members of APHA and belong, and/or actually feel that you are representing your Section, SPIG or Caucus (membership groups), or if the content being delivered is specifically related to a certain external organization (agency, association, institute, firm, company etc.), then please indicate which one. Provide contact information (important) for Section, SPIG or Caucus (membership groups).

Target audience
Please indicate a primary target audience within the public health community that may be particularly interested in your course and separately indicate a broader audience that may be interested in attending.

Institute overview (combined Statement of Purpose and Abstract)
This is your chance to "sell" the course (topic area) to the APHA Education Board APHA-LI planners, and if accepted, ultimately to the public. The first sentence should begin with "The purpose of this Institute is to...". Describe the content of the Institute and the expertise with which the content will be delivered. Educational objectives may be mentioned in general terms, but do not be overly specific since they are required in the next element of the application. This section should include how a gap or need in practice was identified and how the course will address the gap or need. This overview should be no longer than 400 words.

Educational objectives
Provide at least 3 measurable, concrete and single objectives. Start each sentence with one of these objective verbs: Define, List, Describe, Discuss, Explain, Identify, Demonstrate, Differentiate, Compare, Design, Formulate, Evaluate, Assess, Name, or Analyze. Do not use the terms learn or understand—they are not measurable. Learning objectives must be written from the learner’s perspective. What will the learner be able to do after hearing your presentation? Define what? Describe what? List what? Include an abstract for each presenter, along with at least one learning objective for their presentation. Please read and follow instructions carefully.

Methodology
Briefly describe the proposed teaching method(s) for delivering content to participants. APHA suggests using more than one method so that both the content is presented and the audience is engaged in a participatory manner whenever possible (Examples: Lecture, Small Group Work, Open Discussion, Role Play, Hands-on Practice, etc.).

Proposed length and schedule of the complete course
Instructional hours are clock hours minus break time. For example, a 3-hour course will have at least one 15-minute break. Instructional/presentation minutes for a half-day course equal 180 minutes; a full-day course equals 360 minutes. The beginning of the course may be called an ‘Overview,’ but it cannot be called 'Introductions, Welcomes, etc.' and receive continuing education credit. The continuing education accrediting criteria require that substantive content be included during the instructional time. An 'Overview', however, is considered instructional. If you plan to have breakout or concurrent sessions, contact Evangeline Savage at Evangeline.savage@apha.org

When arranging your presentation agenda, be sure to include the official attendee breaks as they pertain to your proposed course.

Saturday: 10:30 am and 3:30 pm

Sunday: 9:30 am and 4:00 pm

Proposed maximum attendance
Select the attendance level that you feel your course can accommodate. APHA reserves the right to cancel any course that has not reached 50% of anticipated registration levels by the close of the "early-bird" registration deadline. APHA, in conjunction with the contact person, will determine if a course will go forward given the anticipated on-site registration projections.

Statement of faculty expertise
To ensure faculty are capable of delivering content in a manner that will provide learners with an educational experience of the highest caliber, the contact person must submit a completed BioData/COI Form for each faculty member, and the contact person. A biographical qualification statement must be provided for all presenters, the designated contact person and moderator. Failure to submit these forms for each faculty member by the deadline will result in disqualification of your proposal.

Cancellation Procedures

APHA reserves the right to cancel the LI course due to low enrollment (less than 10 registrants) after discussion with the contact person. Notification of changes in schedule or cancellation will be made as soon as the need becomes evident; but no later than 30 days prior to the presentation date.

Selection criteria
The APHA Education Board APHA-LI planners participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of all APHA-LI courses. In the selection phase, they will consider the proposed course using the following criteria.

• Relevance of topic to public health
• Appropriate, well written, and clearly stated educational objectives
• Documented educational need and adequate target audience for this course
• Educational methodologies of a quality consistent with course content, objectives, and appropriate for effective learning
• Completed BioData/COI Forms for each planner and faculty that demonstrate expertise/credentials relevant to the proposed topic
• Detailed schedule inclusive of time devoted to major topics (with corresponding faculty identified for all such topics and breaks. For CE credit purposes, it is mandatory that each presenter, faculty, panelist, discussant has an abstract pertaining to their specific topic/talk and at least one measureable learning objective that relates back to their presentation topic-— no exceptions.
• Evaluations from repeated courses, if available

Acceptances of proposals will be made known to the course contact person by March 31, 2012.

Proposals that focus on strengthening competencies in the following areas are encouraged: Program Planning & Evaluation, Communication & Diversity, Leadership in Public Health, Public Health Informatics, Environmental Health & Toxicology, Workplace health promotion, Public Health Accreditation Preparation & Process, Quality Improvement in Public Health, Disaster Preparedness, Competency-based public health curriculum, Cultural competency, and Team Dynamics.

Start a Proposal Submission