Health communication instruction: toward identifying common learning goals, course content, and pedagogical strategies to guide curricular development.

Health communication is a vibrant and growing area of the communication discipline, with an abundance of theoretically grounded scholarship and practical application at many levels. Despite this growth, there has yet to be a published description of health communication pedagogy that could identify common conceptual approaches and teaching practices. To help address this gap, an online survey of health communication instructors at 77 colleges and universities throughout the United States was conducted. The questionnaire elicited information about the general characteristics of the institutions and the courses, learning goals, content areas, teaching strategies, and pedagogical practices. Key limitations are highlighted and some recent systematic curricular programs are then presented.