The African Health OER Network - 2011 Hewlett Grantees Meeting

transcript

Building Capacity Building Capacity through a through a Collaborative Collaborative Health NetworkHealth Network

Hewlett Grantees MeetingHewlett Grantees Meeting29 – 31 March 201129 – 31 March 2011

CHALLENGE

The inadequate density and distribution of healthcare providers negatively affects health outcomes around the globe. A key barrier is the lack of instructor capacity to teach basic and clinical sciences, complicated by the duplication of effort in developing learning materials.

Source: World Health Organization. Working Together for Health: The World Health Report 2006. WHO Publications: Geneva. 2006.

THE AFRICAN HEALTH OER NETWORK

The Network aims to improve the delivery of health education in Africa by Enabling institutions to share knowledge Identifying and addressing curriculum gaps Fostering co-creation of resources across

institutions Supporting communities around health

education

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS University of Michigan OER Africa Initiative of the South African Institute for

Distance Education Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and

Technology University of Ghana University of Cape Town University of the Western Cape University of Malawi University of Botswana Health Education and Training in Africa Project of the

Open University University of Nairobi Makarere University EBW Healthcare Global Health Informatics Partnership Association of American Medical Colleges

APPROACH

The Network is building the socio-technical infrastructure to draw in more African and, eventually, global participants, while also developing models of collaboration and sustainability that can be replicated in other regions of the world.

ACTIVITIES

Launched Network website Created and published 150 new OER Ongoing mentoring and consulting on

OER production and policy Authored case studies and assessments

For more details, see our brochure (PDF).

MULTIMEDIA

Example instructional videos and documentaries are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/openmichigan#g/c/DF41389B70169F26

FINDINGS Open enables wide sharing of knowledge. African colleagues have specialized

knowledge that may be useful to health professionals worldwide.

Some institutions in Africa have established policies for OER while others are receptive but need to update their policy frameworks in order to participate.

Several institutions have successfully integrated students into the design process for OER, freeing up faculty time for other activities.

Participants are interested in connecting with colleagues at other institutions for the purpose of sharing knowledge.

NEXT STEPS

Continue to grow portfolio of African-produced health OER.

Engage with existing health professional organizations and initiatives to introduce OER into emerging and existing health education projects.

Develop and implement a longitudinal research plan to demonstrate the impact of OER on the health education sector.

QUESTIONS

Email: healthoer@oerafrica.org

Websiteshttp://www.oerafrica.org/healthoer

(primary)http://open.umich.edu/education/med/

oernetwork/