Thursday, May 1, 2008
U-M to offer free online health professions educational materials
By Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor
ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan has launched a pilot project to make comprehensive pre-clinical health curricula available worldwide via the Internet.
The project addresses the education of healthcare providers in developing countries in Africa and other parts of the globe.
It also enhances the access for health science schools around the world to materials that can be used to help educate health professionals.
The University of Michigan Medical School is leading the project and working with U-M health science schools and partner institutions in Africa - namely, the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the University of Ghana. U-M officials say a key part of the effort will be converting existing educational materials into Open Educational Resources which will be available online to anyone.
Open Educational Resources, or OER, are teaching, learning and research resources that are in the public domain or have been released under a Creative Commons intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing. They include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other educational tools, materials or techniques.
The Medical School and the schools of Public Health and Dentistry will provide materials for the pilot. Other U-M health science schools and the School of Information are supporting the OER program. The initiative is funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
"This is an exciting opportunity for our University," said James O. Woolliscroft, MD, dean of U-M Medical School."The Health OER program provides the opportunity for the University of Michigan health science schools and the School of Information to collaborate in an innovative, comprehensive approach to work with others to improve education opportunities for health care providers globally."
Woolliscroft said the project will help improve medical education in developing countries, transform the health curriculum at U-M and strengthen students' ability to practice in a global health context.
Cathy Casserly, director of Open Educational Resources at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, said the Michigan project is a valuable experiment in learning how to make educational materials relevant to a specific target population
"Michigan's pilot project is smart in that it works back from the population they want to help to ensure the content is designed to meet demand," said Casserly."We're excited to see how it unfolds."
In addition to the Hewlett Foundation, the University of Michigan, the Open Society Institute and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research are providing financial support for the pilot project.
"We believe this important grant will help us respond to an imperative global need to help train health care providers - particularly in Africa, where they are desperately needed," said David Stern, MD, director of UMHS Global REACH. "At U-M, we train healthcare providers - nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, public health professionals and public health workers. That's what we do best. With this grant, we will be using, adapting and co-creating educational materials with partner universities to collaboratively solve the human resource crisis in Africa."
U-M officials say several major universities have undertaken OER projects at considerable expense, but the U-M project is unique for its use of dScribe, a low-cost, scalable and sustainable method developed by the U-M School of Information to convert educational materials into OER.
The dScribe method involves a close working relationship between students, faculty and staff to assess the quality of materials and clear the intellectual property in course materials. U-M is also developing software tools to aid the faculty in quickly choosing materials to be posted to the OER site.
Health OER will be developed for the pilot program with participation from many parts of the University of Michigan. A larger, future OER effort is expected to include educational materials beyond the health sciences.
"The medical school has taken an important leadership role in launching the University of Michigan's initiative in OER," says John King, U-M vice provost for academic information. "This grant award enables the medical school to collaborate with a number of university programs, including those in dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, public health, kinesiology, social work and information. There is also an important role for the university library. This is the university's first major step into OER, but it is only the beginning of much more exciting things to come."
U-M officials say several major universities have undertaken OER projects at considerable expense, but the U-M project is unique for its use of dScribe, a low-cost, scalable and sustainable method developed by the U-M School of Information to convert educational materials into OER.
The dScribe method involves a close working relationship between students, faculty and staff to assess the quality of materials and clear the intellectual property in course materials.
U-M is also developing software tools to aid the faculty in quickly choosing materials to be posted to the OER site.
Health OER will be developed for the pilot program with participation from many parts of the University of Michigan. A larger, future OER effort is expected to include educational materials beyond the health sciences.
"The medical school has taken an important leadership role in launching the University of Michigan's initiative in OER," says John King, U-M vice provost for academic information. "This grant award enables the medical school to collaborate with a number of university programs, including those in dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, public health, kinesiology, social work and information. There is also an important role for the university library. This is the university's first major step into OER, but it is only the beginning of much more exciting things to come."
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9119&page=1
ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan has launched a pilot project to make comprehensive pre-clinical health curricula available worldwide via the Internet.
The project addresses the education of healthcare providers in developing countries in Africa and other parts of the globe.
It also enhances the access for health science schools around the world to materials that can be used to help educate health professionals.
The University of Michigan Medical School is leading the project and working with U-M health science schools and partner institutions in Africa - namely, the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the University of Ghana. U-M officials say a key part of the effort will be converting existing educational materials into Open Educational Resources which will be available online to anyone.
Open Educational Resources, or OER, are teaching, learning and research resources that are in the public domain or have been released under a Creative Commons intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing. They include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other educational tools, materials or techniques.
The Medical School and the schools of Public Health and Dentistry will provide materials for the pilot. Other U-M health science schools and the School of Information are supporting the OER program. The initiative is funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
"This is an exciting opportunity for our University," said James O. Woolliscroft, MD, dean of U-M Medical School."The Health OER program provides the opportunity for the University of Michigan health science schools and the School of Information to collaborate in an innovative, comprehensive approach to work with others to improve education opportunities for health care providers globally."
Woolliscroft said the project will help improve medical education in developing countries, transform the health curriculum at U-M and strengthen students' ability to practice in a global health context.
Cathy Casserly, director of Open Educational Resources at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, said the Michigan project is a valuable experiment in learning how to make educational materials relevant to a specific target population
"Michigan's pilot project is smart in that it works back from the population they want to help to ensure the content is designed to meet demand," said Casserly."We're excited to see how it unfolds."
In addition to the Hewlett Foundation, the University of Michigan, the Open Society Institute and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research are providing financial support for the pilot project.
"We believe this important grant will help us respond to an imperative global need to help train health care providers - particularly in Africa, where they are desperately needed," said David Stern, MD, director of UMHS Global REACH. "At U-M, we train healthcare providers - nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, public health professionals and public health workers. That's what we do best. With this grant, we will be using, adapting and co-creating educational materials with partner universities to collaboratively solve the human resource crisis in Africa."
U-M officials say several major universities have undertaken OER projects at considerable expense, but the U-M project is unique for its use of dScribe, a low-cost, scalable and sustainable method developed by the U-M School of Information to convert educational materials into OER.
The dScribe method involves a close working relationship between students, faculty and staff to assess the quality of materials and clear the intellectual property in course materials. U-M is also developing software tools to aid the faculty in quickly choosing materials to be posted to the OER site.
Health OER will be developed for the pilot program with participation from many parts of the University of Michigan. A larger, future OER effort is expected to include educational materials beyond the health sciences.
"The medical school has taken an important leadership role in launching the University of Michigan's initiative in OER," says John King, U-M vice provost for academic information. "This grant award enables the medical school to collaborate with a number of university programs, including those in dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, public health, kinesiology, social work and information. There is also an important role for the university library. This is the university's first major step into OER, but it is only the beginning of much more exciting things to come."
U-M officials say several major universities have undertaken OER projects at considerable expense, but the U-M project is unique for its use of dScribe, a low-cost, scalable and sustainable method developed by the U-M School of Information to convert educational materials into OER.
The dScribe method involves a close working relationship between students, faculty and staff to assess the quality of materials and clear the intellectual property in course materials.
U-M is also developing software tools to aid the faculty in quickly choosing materials to be posted to the OER site.
Health OER will be developed for the pilot program with participation from many parts of the University of Michigan. A larger, future OER effort is expected to include educational materials beyond the health sciences.
"The medical school has taken an important leadership role in launching the University of Michigan's initiative in OER," says John King, U-M vice provost for academic information. "This grant award enables the medical school to collaborate with a number of university programs, including those in dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, public health, kinesiology, social work and information. There is also an important role for the university library. This is the university's first major step into OER, but it is only the beginning of much more exciting things to come."
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9119&page=1
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