Transcript kn.open.ac.uk

Embedding open content in education –
Peoples-uni.org
Background
• UK Universities charge high overseas student
fees, which limits their ability to contribute to
capacity building in low- to middle-income
countries
• Increasing amounts of open source educational
material, as well as delivery mechanisms, are
available through the Internet, but universities
which offer open access to their materials do not
offer teaching or assessment in association
So:
• In the context of capacity building for
developing countries, how about trying to
make open source materials available,
guide students through them and assess
achieved competencies?
• And do this outside the traditional
university system?
• Hence the idea for a ‘Peoples Open
Access Education Initiative’ Peoples-uni.org
Inspirations
• Free and open source software (FOSS)
• Open Educational Resources (OER) – ‘digitized materials offered
freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners….
universal educational resource available for the whole of humanity’
– Comprise:
– Learning Content:
– Tools: Software to support the development, use, re-use and delivery of
learning content….
– Implementation Resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote
open publishing of materials, design principles of best practice, and
localization of content.
– Strong support by UNESCO
• Personal experience
Where to start?
• Public Health problems abound in many
developing countries, and capacity to deal
with them is limited
• Local MPH courses, where they exist, are
heavily oversubscribed in many countries
with the greatest need
Examples of Public Health
open educational resources
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Universities:
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Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Tufts University
OU OpenLearn
Centers for Health Preparedness (ASPH)
• Other organisations:
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Public Health Learning.com
Public Health Agency of Canada
Health Sciences Online
MERLOT
CDC Public Health Training Network
• Volunteers:
– Global Health Education Consortium
– Supercourse
What do we need?
• Educational materials
• Delivery mechanism (ICT and tutors)
• Accreditation of learned competencies
Who will do the teaching?
• UK/US universities (who would donate
some of their courses)
• Local universities
• Volunteers
– Diaspora who want to ‘give something back’
– Retired academics
– Health service professionals (including
trainees)
– Graduates of the Peoples-uni.org
The educational process
• Identify health problem (such as maternal mortality)
• Identify the educational need (such as Masters level for
health professionals as ‘train the trainers’)
• Identify the competences required
• Identify the on-line resources relevant to the
competences
• Develop a set of focussed discussion topics for
tutor/facilitators to lead on-line groups, using learning
management system (Moodle for now)
• Assess and accredit learned competences
• Do this across a range of relevant problems to cover a
whole set of competences to build a course
• In addition, consistent with the Web 2.0 philosophy,
revise the resources as they are used, to ensure local
relevance
Quality
• The educational materials
– Use of materials which have gone through a peer
review process
• The educational process
– Literature and experience based methods
– Tutor training
– External accreditation
• Assessment of identified competences
– Building on experience in university setting
– Published competences require modification for
problem-based and developing country settings
• Web 2.0/Education 3.0 philosophy
Principles behind competences
• Published competences require modification for problem-based and
developing country settings
• A skill-based competence assessment
• Competences generated by academics, employers, students,
professional associations, etc
• Local competences consistent with agreed generic competences to
take account of local methods, technologies, resources
• Competences, international and local, would be refined
overtime by all users and suppliers
• Competencies accredited by an academic body and/or employers
and professional associations
• Assessment of an individual's competencies would be
self, peer, employer and assessor
• A stable URI could be created where the competence definitions can
be held and updated
Thanks to Malcolm Greenhalgh & Simon Grant
Has this not been done before?
• There are an increasing number of on-line
courses run by universities (for awards)
and professional organisations (for CPD)
• There is an increasing amount of Open
Education Resource available on the
Internet, however very little of this is
embedded in an educational context
Sustainability
• Organisational structure
– ‘Volunteersourcing’
• Business model
• Downes: “…sustainability of OERs - in a fashion
that renders then at once both affordable and
usable - requires that we think of OERs as only
part of a larger picture, one that includes
volunteers and incentives, community and
partnerships, co-production and sharing,
distributed management and control”
Progress to date
• An on-line discussion has taken place, hosted by
CAWD (a charity aiming to increase availability
of education through ICT for rural Nigeria)
• The key messages were:
– Any development must strengthen and not compete
with local universities
– Education must be both credible and affordable
– There are likely to be country-specific solutions
• Lots of interest subsequently generated
Peoples-uni.org
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Situation analyses performed
Partnerships being developed
A web site has been created: www.peoples-uni.org
The web site links to Cawdnet Campus on which
the working parties can communicate and
discussions continue
• Two draft course modules on maternal mortality
and preventing child mortality have been
produced draft modules
Pilot of course module
• A pilot has begun of a course module on
Maternal Mortality
• 10 weeks, five topics based on competences,
three assessments (one formative), Moodle
based
• General and content expert facilitators
• 38 students from 7 countries after limited
publicity, range from clinicians wanting Public
Health perspective to policy-makers and
programme leads
Progress to date (October 2007)
• Support and involvement have been offered by a
number of organisations and individuals,
including:
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CAWD
Doctors Worldwide
International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN)
Canadian Public Health Agency
Commonwealth of Learning
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Illinois Public Health Preparedness Centre
Global Health Education Consortium
MGA Education
Progress to date (July 2007)
• Partnership agreements with:
– TENCompetence (EU project on education
technology) TENCompetence
– Health Sciences Online myHSO.org
– Approved Cooperating Organisation of
Development Gateway Foundation Development
Gateway
Progress to date (October 2007)
• Discussions underway:
– UK Public Health Teaching Networks
– UK Faculty of Public Health
– Royal Society of Health/Royal Institute of
Public Health (potential accreditation body)
– Australasian Faculty of Public Health
Medicine
Problems and prospects
• Despite considerable interest in the concept,
limited commitment to help out
• Universities appear to feel threatened
• Accreditation still to be solved
• Business model still to be agreed
• Greatest need is to:
– Identify collaborating university/accreditation
organisation
– Identify volunteer tutor/facilitators and content experts
– Achieve other support/endorsement
Conclusions
• A programme providing educational context around
Open Education Resources, to help with capacity
building in developing countries, has generated interest
and support
• The educational model includes competence and
problem based approaches, offered on-line, utilising the
concepts of Web2.0
• The potential for success relies on volunteerism
• Remaining unsolved issues include accreditation and an
appropriate business model
• We are at an early stage and will appreciate all help,
advice and collaboration