Except where otherwise noted, this work is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.Copyright © 2011 The Regents of the University of Michigan and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Building Capacity through a Collaborative Health Network

Kathleen Ludewig Omollo, U-MNadia Tagoe, KNUST

October 7, 2011U-M SI 575 Guest Talk

CHALLENGE

The inadequate density and distribution of healthcare providers negatively affects health outcomes around the globe. This is especially true in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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

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

CONTEXT:FACULTY CAPACITY

• A key barrier is the lack of instructor capacity to teach basic and clinical sciences. – Example: Ghana medical schools can only admit

30% of qualified applicants.

• This is complicated by the duplication of effort in developing learning materials.

Ward Rounds. Photo by: University of Ghana.

Ward Rounds at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Photo by: Cary Engleberg

CONTEXT: CROWDED WARD ROUDNS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFjJe8ZJkJU (1 min, KNUST Student)

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

(KNUST) (Ghana)Peter Donkor

Pro Vice Chancellor, former Provost of the College of

Health Scienceshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR31aCaj60Q

(90 seconds)

WHY OER?

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Photo by: The Regents of the University of Michigan

WHY OER?When you look in textbooks it’s difficult to find African cases. The cases may be pretty similar but sometimes it can be confusing when you see something that you see on a white skin so nicely and very easy to pick up, but on the dark skin it has a different manifestation that may be difficult to see. Sometimes it is difficult for the students to appreciate when they see a clinical case that involves an African. I think that [locally developed] OER will go a long way in helping the students appreciate the cases that we see in our part of the world.

-Richard Phillips, lecturer, Department of Internal Medicine, KNUST

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

WHAT IS “THE NETWORK”?

The mission of the African Health OER Network is to advance health education in Africa by using open educational resources (OER) developed by and targeted toward Africans in order to share knowledge, address curriculum gaps, and support communities around health education.

HISTORY OF THE NETWORK

PARTICIPANT MAP - INDIVIDUALS

85 Individuals Signed Declaration of Support

http://batchgeo.com/map/d70937ef6be461a3571274817b590a52

PARTICIPANT MAP - ORGANIZATIONS

http://batchgeo.com/map/a70a5bf6278d936e23737b968fc5317c

19 Organizations Signed Declaration of Support

• OER Africa• University of Michigan• Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology• University of Ghana • University of Cape Town • University of the Western Cape • University of Malawi• Makerere University• EBW Healthcare• Global Health Informatics Partnership• MedEdPORTAL

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: TRAINING/WORKSHOPS

OER Africa Convening, 2011. Photo by: Saide.

ACTIVITIES: MENTORING/CONSULTING

Photo by: Re-ality (Flickr)

Photo by: Sara Grajeda (Flickr)

Students in line for computer lab at University of GhanaPhoto by: The Regents of the University of Michigan (flickr)

Dkscully (flickr)

ACTIVITIES: PLATFORMS & DISTRIB.

Power outages are common. Bandwidth is very expensive.

OER is distributed offline and online by authoring institutions and the two Network co-facilitators, OER Africa and U-M.

Learn more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMiObNC3KYI (12 minutes)

ACTIVITIES: PLATFORMS & DISTRIB.

University of Malawi Kamuzu College of Nursing. Photo by: Saide.

IMPACT

University of Ghana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_U9zyMZnpY (2 min)

University of Ghana. Photo by: The Regents of the University of Michigan.

IMPACT RESEARCH

IMPACT• Participants are interested in connecting with

colleagues at other institutions for the purpose of sharing knowledge.

• At least 5 institutions have used or adapted OER from elsewhere.

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

FEATURED INSTITUTION: KNUST

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

OER at KNUST - Outline

• Early efforts and use• Impact of OER on quality of health education• Benefits of OER• Way forward

Images by: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

OER at KNUST

• Beginning activities in College of Health Sciences• Internal and external collaboration• Policy initiatives• Voluntary participation by faculty• Content and Design by facult &media specialists• Clearing, Review and Quality Assurance or

dScribing by media specialists• Publication, Interoperability and Access

EARLY EFFORTS AND USE

http://oer.knust.edu.gh Images by: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Impact of OER on quality of health education

• Teacher-centred to learner-centred • Meet needs of all types of learners;

self-paced learning• Improved teaching of complex

processes• Improved clinical instruction i.e.

bedside, theatre, etc.

• Quality faculty-student interaction• Provide learning resources beyond

current curriculumWard Rounds. Photo by: University of Ghana.

Cary Engleberg

BENEFITS of OER• Improved quality in education

– Boost in the use of innovative teaching and learning modes e.g. audio and visual interfaces

– Complements the teacher-learner interaction instead of replacing it

• Policy development and institutional ownership

• Supplement a relative shortage of print resources

• Institutional networking and sharing of resources

• KNUST contributing to global knowledge base

WAY FORWARD

• Policy implementation and structured development of OER

• Scalability – Current efforts limited to health OER– Address identified challenges

• Promote usage• Sustainable funding and investment• Wider stakeholder involvement, MOE, MOH• Impact evaluation

CONCLUDING REMARKSOER is seen as means to streamlining health education, not an end in itself.

African colleagues have specialized knowledge that may be useful to health professionals worldwide.

Photos by: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED AT U-M• For those involved in health education projects abroad through research,

study abroad, or volunteer activities, you can openly license any materials that you create and/or refer the Network to your African collaborators.

• For those who teach or study related health or policy classes, point them to the Network as a place that could be used for supplemental material, especially for tropical diseases and methods used in resource-constrained environments. Comment on the resources (e.g. YouTube) and/or let me know how you're using them and general feedback.

• For the tech-inclined students who have ideas about how to add innovative delivery (e.g. mobile) or interaction to the content, there is large collection of openly licensed content that they can remix and repurpose. Let me know if you do any remixes so that I can recognize them and inform the authors.

QUESTIONS

Email: kludewig@umich.edu

Websiteshttp://www.oerafrica.org/healthoer (primary)

http://open.umich.edu/education/med/oernetwork/