Capacity-building for public health: http://peoples-uni.org

Heller, Richard F; Chongsuvivatwong, Virasakdi; Hailegeorgios, Samson; Dada, John; Torun, Perihan; Madhok, Rajan; Sandars, John

doi:10.2471/blt.07.044388

Cited by 38 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…We have previously described the development of the concept and the situation analyses that led us to setting up Peoples-uni (Heller et al, 2007;Heller, 2009). In essence we developed a programme that could be delivered entirely online to health professionals working in LMICs.…”

Section: Background: Development and Current Status Of Peoples-unimentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Education for Public Health Capacity Building in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

Heller

Strobl

Madhok

2019

IRRODL

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People’s Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni, http://peoples-uni.org) aims to contribute to improvements in the health of populations in low- to middle-income countries by building public health capacity via e-learning at affordable cost. We describe experience over nine years of the initiative, including the development and delivery of a Master of Public Health (MPH) programme in public health and collaboration with a UK University. Courses rely on Open Educational Resources and volunteer tutors from over 50 countries to date. During 18 semesters since 2008, 1619 students from 92 countries (71% from Africa) enrolled. Of 128 students accepted on an MPH programme accredited by a UK University, 94 earned an MPH (73%) and a further 18 (14%) achieved a postgraduate diploma or certificate. Other developments include continuing involvement with Alumni, and a sister site for Open Online Courses to include topics not often found in MPH courses. We offer insights for further development of this and similar online capacity building programmes within low-resource environments. Our experience shows the feasibility of affordable, high quality online education and that there is scope for accelerating capacity building programmes through partnerships with higher education institutions and health(care) organisations.

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Section: Background: Development and Current Status Of Peoples-unimentioning

confidence: 99%

Online Education for Public Health Capacity Building in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

Heller

Strobl

Madhok

2019

IRRODL

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“…The Peoples Open Access Education Initiative – the Peoples-uni – is one of the first examples of this "social" model of international capacity building [ 7 ]. Volunteers develop an educational context for resources that are freely available on the Internet, and then deliver this, again using open-source ICT.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experience with a "social model" of capacity building: the Peoples-uni

Heller¹

2009

Hum Resour Health

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Background: Taking advantage of societal trends involving the "third sector", a social model of philanthropy and the open-source software and educational resource movements, provides the opportunity for online education for capacity building at low cost. The Peoples Open Access Education Initiative, Peoples-uni, aims to help build public health capacity in this way, and this paper describes its evolution.

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“…McAndrew and Farrow (2013, p. 73) propose that 'beyond the general idea of facilitating access, the values associated with open education have perhaps yet to receive full expression'. Pointing to the work of Heller et al (2007), Ijsselmuiden et al (2007), Geith and Vignare (2008), Lee et al (2008) and Angell et al (2011), who have all 'sought to connect the OER movement with discourses about public health and human rights in developing countries' McAndrew and Farrow suggest that OER are gradually 'becoming part of a wider discourse about rights and social justice, which goes beyond simply promoting access (and may be seen to reconnect with the original aspirations of the open education movement)'.…”

Section: Section 5: Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The realities of 'reaching out': enacting the public-facing open scholar role with existing online communities

Perryman

Coughlan

2013

JIME

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A core tenet of the open educational resources (OER) movement has long been that 'the world's knowledge is a public good' (Smith & Casserly, 2006, p.2) and should be available for everyone to use, reuse and share. However, this vision of openness and of the connection between OER and social justice, which McAndrew and Farrow (2013) observe is currently re-emerging, is limited by the fact that OER-provision is typically top-down, driven by higher education suppliers with the needs of higher education (HE) in mind. As a consequence, the OER that are released can be hard to find for potential users outside HE and often fail to meet those potential users' needs in respect of the content, size, format and level of the OER. Seeking to increase the impact of OER and open educational practices (OEP) beyond higher education we conceptualised a new role for academics-the public-facing open scholar. The role involves academics working with online communities outside HE to source OER to meet the specific needs of those communities. Having developed detailed guidelines for performing the role we piloted it within a voluntary sector child welfare community in order to explore its viability. To date, our pilot findings indicate that the role of public-facing open scholar is both viable and well-received by the case study community. However, the pilot process, conducted in a community which requires all participants to be anonymous, has also highlighted the need to be aware of the impact of privacy constraints when choosing a community with which to work. In addition, the pilot indicated that listening to a community's needs involves more than noting requests for advice and includes attentiveness to a community's culture and typical modes of participation. This, in turn, can help the public-facing open scholar to fit in with the community and gain members' trust. The implications of these findings are wide-ranging. Voluntary sector online The realities of 'reaching out': enacting the public-facing open scholar role with existing online communities 1 of 14 communities offer one platform for the public-facing open scholar to realise the transformative potential of open education, raising awareness and increasing the use and reuse of OER by people outside HE. However, the scope for the role is not limited to the voluntary sector and academics could find opportunities to perform the role in many different types of community. Furthermore, whilst we have concentrated on the role of the individual academic, institutional dimensions are also relevant. For example, higher education institutions which formally recognise the public-facing open scholar role as an important component of academic output, rather than an activity which is in tension with the demands of paid employment, may themselves be seen as taking on the role of a benevolent academy that is contributing to a global movement for free and open access to knowledge.

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Capacity-building for public health: http://peoples-uni.org

Cited by 38 publications

References 8 publications

Online Education for Public Health Capacity Building in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

Online Education for Public Health Capacity Building in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

Experience with a "social model" of capacity building: the Peoples-uni

The realities of 'reaching out': enacting the public-facing open scholar role with existing online communities

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