The African Health OER Network - 2011 Hewlett Grantees Meeting

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 Building Capacity through a Collaborative Health Network Hewlett Grantees Meeting 29 – 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:
[email_address]
Websites
http://www.oerafrica.org/healthoer (primary)
http://open.umich.edu/education/med/oernetwork/

The African Health OER Network - 2011 Hewlett Grantees Meeting

by Kathleen Ludewig Omollo

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