PHP831:

PHP 831: Pubplic Health Preparedness and the Emergency Operation Plan

This course is based on one important premise: emergency exercises are worth the effort. Exercises identify areas of proficiency and those that need improvement. Lessons learnt from exercises can be used to revise operational plans and provide a basis for training to improve proficiency in executing those plans.

Overview

Course Goal

The goal of this course is to provide participants with practical experience in using the 5-phase exercise cycle methodology and tools to design and conduct discussion-based exercises and operations-based exercises.

Prerequisite

Graduate Students - Enrollment in the MHS program, the Post- Baccalaureate Credit Certificate in Homeland Security, or permission from the instructor.

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of emergency preparedness exercise design, facilitation, and evaluation.  Students will design an exercise, identify the logistics necessary for execution and management of the exercise, and develop an exercise evaluation plan.

Students will also be introduced to the concept of a comprehensive exercise program that provides a framework for using exercises for continuous quality improvement and making changes to emergency operation plans (EOPs) based on lessons learned.

Course Topics

Course topics include: planning, designing, developing, conducting, evaluating, and implementing improvement planning for discussion-based exercises and operations-based exercises.

Course as Viewed in the Total Curriculum

This course is designed to provide insight into the tasks, roles and responsibilities required to design and conduct an emergency preparedness exercise that is a part of a long-term, carefully constructed plan in which exercises help the community prepare for disasters.  Students will use a community needs assessment to develop the case for exercises, design an exercise, and outline an evaluation plan aimed at improving competence in all emergency functions.

Course Outcomes

At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:

1. Discuss how a comprehensive exercise program is used to improve each of the five phases of emergency management (prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery).
2. Explain the exercise design cycle.
3. Design and develop a functional exercise.
4. Compare and contrast the purposes, characteristics, and design considerations for orientation, tabletop, functional and full-scale exercises.
5. Discuss a systematic exercise evaluation process.

Course Competencies

1. Discuss how a comprehensive exercise program is used to improve the five phases of emergency management for a community or organization.

1. Identify the benefits of conducting an exercise of plans, protocols or procedures.
2. List federal, state or local regulatory agencies that require exercises of emergency plans.
3. Describe examples of when exercising resulted in successful response to an actual event.
4. List the major functions of a disaster emergency response.
5. Conduct a community exercise needs assessment.
6. Identify the components of a comprehensive exercise program.

2. Explain the exercise design cycle.

1. Describe the benefits, organization, and responsibilities of an exercise design team.
2. Define the purpose of the four major exercise documents.
3. Describe three different ways to visualize and sequence the exercise design cycle.
4. List and describe five major accomplishments in designing and implementing an exercise.

3. Develop a functional exercise.

1. List the eight exercise design steps.
2. Use a community exercise needs assessment to develop an Exercise Scope for a functional exercise.
3. Write an exercise Purpose Statement for a functional exercise.
4. List the elements of an effective Exercise Objective.
5. Write Exercise Objectives for a functional exercise.
6. Develop a Points of Review for each functional exercise objective.
7. Compose a Narrative for a functional exercise.
8. Explain the relationship between exercise objectives, major events, detailed events, and expected actions.
9. Write major events, detailed events, and expected actions to support a functional exercise.
10. Compose message injects for a functional exercise.
11. Develop a Master Scenario Events List for a functional exercise.

4. Compare and contrast the purposes, characteristics, design and exercise conduct considerations for drills, orientation, tabletop, functional and full-scale exercises.

1. List the purpose, format, and application for different types of exercises.
2. Explain how designing the different exercises types will differ.
3. Identify the different planning considerations for site selection and management of different types of exercises.
4. Describe the facilitation needs, physical requirements and participant roles required for each type of exercise.

5. Identify the tasks involved in a systematic exercise evaluation process.

1. Describe the need for a systematic approach to exercise evaluation.
2. Identify and explain the tasks in the exercise evaluation process.
3. List the characteristics and elements of an after-action report.
4. Describe how to develop and implement corrective actions.
5. Develop an exercise evaluation plan based on identified exercise evaluation results.

Staying in Touch

Google - Online Collaboration

VSee

Netiquette

Document File Formats

Documenting References

Google Scholar

Obtaining Transcripts

Registering for Future Courses

Interacting with the Course Instructor and Response Time

Required Course Materials

General Course Discussion Forum

Format for Papers

Late Penalties

Technical Requirements

If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Service Desk.

For registration, advising, disability services, help with materials, exams, general problem solving, visit World Campus Student Services!

Course Requirements and Grading

Course Access

Formal instruction will end on the last day of class. Provided that you have an active Penn State Access Account userid and password, you will continue to be able to access the course materials for one year from the day the course began.

Course Schedule

Note that assignments are due based on the Eastern Time zone (EST or EDT). This ensures that all students have the same deadlines regardless of where they live.​

• Course length: 12 weeks

Lesson	Activity		Points
1: Public Health Preparedness and Exercises	Individual Activity - Academic Integrity Form (I,U) Group Activity - Introduction (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity - Exercise Needs Assessment (I, G) -->  25 points		50
2: Comprehensive Exercise Program	Group Activity – Past Exercises Experience (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity – Develop a Comprehensive Exercise Program Plan (I, G) -->  25 points		50
3: The Exercise Process	Group Activity – Design Team Members Table (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity 1 – Getting Ready for Exercise Design (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – Identify Design Team Members (I, G) -->  25 points		75
4. Exercise Design and Development – Part 1	Group Activity – Your organizations use of exercises (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity 1 – Define exercise scope and purpose (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – Analyze an objective (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 3 – Compare good and poor objectives (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 4 – Develop objectives (I, G) -->  25 points		125
5: Exercise Design and Development – Part 2	Group Activity – State and local government exercise-based training resources (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity 1 – Outline a Narrative (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – Write Major and Detailed Events (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 3 – Compose a Message (I, G) -->  25 points		100
6: Tabletop Exercise	Group Activity – Individual Activity 1 Ideas (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity 1 – your ideas for facilitating a tabletop (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – develop tabletop exercise problem statements (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 3 – develop tabletop exercise message (I, G) -->  25 points		100
7: Functional Exercise	Group Activity – Journal articles review (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity 1 – Compare Tabletop and Functional Exercises (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – Identify Functional Exercise Roles (I, G) -->  25 points		75
8: Full Scale Exercise	Individual Activity 1 – Know your regulatory requirements (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 2 – Compare Functional and Full-Scale Exercises (I, G) -->  25 points Individual Activity 3 – Plan ahead for the full-scale exercise (I, G) -->  25 points		75
9: Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning	Group Activity – Evaluating and Improving your Organization (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity – Plan your evaluation (I, G) -->  25 points		50
10: Designing a Functional Exercise – Part 1	Designing a Functional Exercise Part 1 (I, G) -->  100 points		100
11: Designing a Functional Exercise – Part 2	Designing a Functional Exercise Part 2 (I, G) -->  100 points		100
12: Take Back Review Project	Group Activity – Summary of “Take Back Review” project (T, P/F) -->  25 points Individual Activity – “Take Back Review” project (I, G) -->  75 points		100
Total Point			1000

NOTE: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please see "Graduation" on the World Campus Student Policies website.

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Academic Integrity

According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity , an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.

Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity ). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic outcomes, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes which may include ineligibility for Dean’s List, pass/fail elections, and grade forgiveness. Students may also face consequences from their home/major program and/or The Schreyer Honors College.

How Academic Integrity Violations Are Handled
World Campus students are expected to act with civility and personal integrity; respect other students' dignity, rights, and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for oneself and others, as well as a civil community.

In cases where academic integrity is questioned, the Policy on Academic Integrity indicates that procedure requires an instructor to inform the student of the allegation. Procedures allow a student to accept or contest a charge. If a student chooses to contest a charge, the case will then be managed by the respective college or campus Academic Integrity Committee. If that committee recommends an administrative sanction (Formal Warning, Conduct Probation, Suspension, Expulsion), the claim will be referred to the Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response.

All Penn State colleges abide by this Penn State policy, but review procedures may vary by college when academic dishonesty is suspected. Information about Penn State's academic integrity policy and college review procedures is included in the information that students receive upon enrolling in a course. To obtain that information in advance of enrolling in a course, please contact us by going to the Contacts & Help page .

Policies

Accommodating Disabilities

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has resources for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contacts for disability services at every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit the SDR website.

In order to apply for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability resources office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation based on the documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus's disability resources office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Additional Course Policies

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Military

Veterans and currently serving military personnel and/or dependents with unique circumstances (e.g., upcoming deployments, drill/duty requirements, VA appointments, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor in the case that special arrangements need to be made.

Time Zone (for due dates)

Note: All due dates reflect North American eastern time (ET).

Disclaimer: Please note that the specifics of this Course Syllabus are subject to change, and you will be responsible for abiding by any such changes. Your instructor will notify you of any changes.