Hello and welcome!

I'm Barbara Bright, your professor for Arthritis: The Public Health Approach. I have designed this course to help you understand and apply the principles of public health to a real public health challenge: reducing the burden of arthritis and arthritis-related disability.

You'll need to roll up your sleeves for this one; I don't intend the course to be a passive learning experience. It's chock full of practical information, examples, and exercises for you to apply what you're learning. I'll use Blueburg County USA as an example throughout the course and ask you to think about your own community in completing the exercises. That way, when you're finished, you will have applied what you've learned to a real public health challenge in your area.

To receive your course completion certificate, you'll have to complete all of the exercises and pass the quiz. Don't let me scare you away though. I think you'll enjoy the challenge, and I can guarantee that you'll learn a lot!

Learning a lot is one advantage of completing the course, but there are others too. As you complete the exercises, you'll develop a sample program plan and other documents focused on a public health issue important to your own work and community. In addition, the course will help you to quickly locate resources on the Internet. And, completing the course will earn you continuing education credits.

Let's take care of some preliminary business and then get on with the course.