#246 Presentation

Monday 16 April 11:30 - 12:00 Armitage Room

It takes two - Delivering public health education to students in low/middle income countries: the effects of OCW/OER on teaching practices

Jessica Sheringham, People's Open Access Education Initiative, UK
Anna Jones, People's Open Access Education Initiative, UK
Fiona Reynolds, People's Open Access Education Initiative, UK
Richard Heller, People's Open Access Education Initiative, Australia

Conference Theme: Impact

Summary: Using OCW/OER to deliver postgraduate public health education to students in low/middle income countries

Abstract: There is an urgent need to develop public health capacity in low and middle income countries (LMIC). Providing postgraduate public health education is one way through which this can be achieved. However, mainstream educational opportunities are insufficient within LMICs and the costs of accessing courses in high income countries prohibitive.
People's Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni http://peoples-uni.org) aims to build public health capacity in LMIC at low cost. It comprises a dispersed set of volunteers, with ‘day jobs’ in public health, academia and IT. With limited resources to build bespoke web-based teaching applications or design new educational materials, open courseware (OCW), including open educational resources (OER) and open software to support course delivery, provide a feasible solution for Peoples-uni.
Peoples-uni has been providing courses using OCW based on OER since 2008. Modules are provided through Moodle, with application and enrolment processes, records and assignment feedback systems developed by volunteers. Modules can be selected individually and together can lead to a Diploma or, since 2011, to a Masters in Public Health accredited by Manchester Metropolitan University. Each module has five topics with discussion forums facilitated by volunteer tutors, based on carefully selected OER. To date, 17 modules have been provided to over 240 students from 30 countries, with a high number from sub-Saharan Africa.
Throughout these three years of course development, tutoring and mentoring new facilitators, our teaching practices have been significantly influenced by some of the unique challenges and capabilities of delivering education in this way. In this session, we will present case studies and reflections on themes such as:

• the ‘virtual’ classroom: strategies for stimulating and maintaining student postings have involved developing styles of ‘active listening’ online;
• accessibility vs rigour: we are specifically trying to reach students in resource-poor environments, often with limited and unpredictable internet access without the opportunity for face-to-face interaction. As a result, tutors have to balance a high degree of trust and flexibility whilst maintaining academic credibility and fairness to all students;
• the new facilitator: Peoples-uni graduates are now becoming tutors, providing an illustration of how the courses are developing capacity. When a facilitator new to Peoples-uni starts working with us, they also bring ‘fresh eyes’ to the experience of learning online, reminding us what new students face. This highlights the anxiety that students can feel posting when for the first time and learning to navigate the course website consequently our first topic discussions are now focused primarily on developing competence in using the technologies;
• promoting and monitoring teaching quality online: As course leaders we are starting to use the functionality offered by OCW which is not available in face-to-face learning e.g. to ‘rehearse’ responses to students before posting and to use the online discussion records  to monitor facilitators’ performance/behaviours.

Student feedback suggests that Peoples-uni is succeeding in its aim of providing accessible low-cost public health education to students in resource-poor environments and promises to further develop practitioners’ skills and build capacity where it is most needed.