On October 7, 2011, Kathleen Ludewig Omollo (University of Michigan) and Nadia Tagoe (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) presented to the University of Michigan students in the SI 575 Community Informatics Seminar. 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. The project began in 2008 with five institutions in Ghana and South Africa but we continue to draw in more African participants with the goal of building a continent-wide Network. This presentation will explore the rationale for harnessing OER in the health sector, the motivations for forming the Network, the services and activities of the Network, and the initial outcomes and lessons learned. Guest Nadia Tagoe will speak about the health OER project at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, one of the founding institutional partners.

1. 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-M Nadia Tagoe, KNUST October 7, 2011 U-M SI 575 Guest Talk

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

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

8. 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.

10. HISTORY OF THE NETWORK

11. PARTICIPANT MAP - INDIVIDUALS 85 Individuals Signed Declaration of Support http://batchgeo.com/map/d70937ef6be461a3571274817b590a52

12. 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

14. ACTIVITIES: TRAINING/WORKSHOPS OER Africa Convening, 2011. Photo by: Saide.

15. ACTIVITIES: MENTORING/CONSULTING Photo by: Re-ality ( Flickr ) Photo by: Sara Grajeda ( Flickr ) Students in line for computer lab at University of Ghana Photo by: The Regents of the University of Michigan ( flickr ) Dkscully ( flickr )

16. 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)

17. ACTIVITIES: PLATFORMS & DISTRIB. University of Malawi Kamuzu College of Nursing. Photo by: Saide.

20. IMPACT RESEARCH

25. EARLY EFFORTS AND USE http://oer.knust.edu.gh Images by: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.