by Esta de Fossard ¹

• ¹ The Johns Hopkins University

This Online Course examines methodology and develops skills needed to create a successful Entertainment-Education (E-E) project in entertainment (story, drama, etc.) formats with effective behavior change messages.

Course Description

This course examines and teaches ways in which education can be subtly but effectively worked into both new and time-honored genres of entertainment to foster positive behavior change and life improvement in both developing countries and local environments. The course develops students' ability to understand the ingredients of successful entertainment (emotions, empathy, efficacy and empowerment) and how these ingredients can be employed to enhance social and personal health and life skills.

Course Objectives

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

• Analyze a societal or individual behavior problem that is to be improved through Entertainment-Education (E-E)
• Define the differences in E-E program types for different audiences, such as children, adolescents, adults
• Develop a detailed Design Document (guide for program writers and evaluators) showing the precise knowledge that will be taught in the E-E project
• Construct the synopsis and character sketches for a TV or radio serial drama designed to encourage behavior or social change and create complete episodes of the drama for the intended audience
• Design and construct support materials, including Distance Education (Edu-tainment) materials for "on-the-ground" supporters of the intended audience of the E-E project