Let’s Take it to the Clouds: The Potential of Educational Innovations, Including Blended Learning, for Capacity Building in Developing Countries

Abstract

In modern decentralised health systems, district and local managers are increasingly responsible for financing, managing, and delivering healthcare. However, their lack of adequate skills and competencies are a critical barrier to improved performance of health systems. Given the financial and human resource, constraints of relying on traditional face-to-face training to upskill a large and dispersed number of health managers, governments, and donors must look to exploit advances in the education sector. In recent years, education providers around the world have been experimenting with blended learning; that is, amalgamating traditional face-to-face education with web-based learning to reduce costs and enrol larger numbers of students. Access to improved information and communication technology (ICT) has been the major catalyst for such pedagogical innovations. We argue that with many developing countries already improving their ICT systems, the question is not whether but how to employ technology to facilitate the continuous professional development of district and local health managers in decentralised settings. Keywords: Blended Learning, Decentralisation, Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), Education, Health Managers Copyright: © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences Citation: Marrinan H, Firth S, Hipgrave D, Jimenez-Soto E. Let's take it to the clouds: the potential of educational innovations, including blended learning, for capacity building in developing countries.

The features and qualities of online training modules in research ethics: a case study evaluating their institutional application for the University of Botswana

“…Compared to the on-site, online is costeffective (Aggarwal et al, 2011) and finally, learners using the online mode are more self-directed and independent (Ogunrin et al, 2013;Stacey & Wiesenberg, 2007). However, this platform requires effective internet connectivity and technical capacity of learners and instructors (Barchi et al, 2013;Caravias, 2014;Marrinan et al, 2015). This limitation was highlighted by students in the FGD.…”

“…This limitation was highlighted by students in the FGD. To address this challenge, blended teaching approach could be adopted to enhance student engagement (Barchi et al, 2015;Kalichman, 2005;Marrinan et al, 2015;Muller, Swanepoel, & De Beer, 2010). These scholars are of the view that online courses that require interaction with faculty and which require students to do case analysis are more effective in fostering ethical skills.…”

“…Due to resource challenges, development of face-to-face institutionalized training programs has been difficult, and online platforms are increasingly becoming popular in LMICs since they are cost effective, flexible and have the capacity to reach a large audiences (Aggarwal et al, 2011;Caravias, 2014;Curran, Fleet, & Kirby, 2010;Gedera, 2014;Marrinan, Firth, Hipgrave, & Jimenez-Soto, 2015;Silverman et al, 2013;Stacey & Wiesenberg, 2007;Williams et al, 2014). However, online courses are criticized for being brief, compliance oriented and requiring stable internet connectivity (Allen & Seaman, 2011;Caravias, 2014;Ogunrin, Ogundiran, & Adebamowo, 2013).…”

Leveraging massive open online courses to expand quality of healthcare education to health practitioners in Rwanda

“…However, educational opportunities for health practitioners have been limited on this topic, especially in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). One increasingly used approach to address broader education access gaps in LMICs, including those for healthcare professionals, is massive open online courses (MOOCs) 3–7. There is some controversy regarding how effective they have been in ensuring educational access to people who may benefit most 5 7.…”

“…One increasingly used approach to address broader education access gaps in LMICs, including those for healthcare professionals, is massive open online courses (MOOCs) 3–7. There is some controversy regarding how effective they have been in ensuring educational access to people who may benefit most 5 7. Yet in resource-limited settings, MOOCs have the potential to allow learners to engage with previously inaccessible content and can facilitate innovation in ‘technology-enabled pedagogy’ and other ‘blended learning’ approaches 3 5 7…”