eDrug @ eLearning Africa 2012

By Ross Ward | Published: June 4, 2012

eDrug:Malawi – essential training in safe prescribing

This years eLearning Africa conference was held in Benin and our project was represented by Academic Liasion Officer, Louisa Alfazema who delivered a talk on the eDrug system.

This annual event is the largest event held in Africa which focuses on
 how education can be enhanced with the use of ICT.  Attended by 1482 particpants from 69 countries it is an excellent opportunity to share ideas, opportunities and create relationships from projects across the continent and worldwide.

eDrug is an electronic formulary that contains information on 180 core drugs that have been updated to be specific to the pharmacology teaching that is taking place in Malawi.  The new eDrug system developed in Malawi also links the information on drugs to specific areas of the the College of Medicine curriculum where that drug may be administered and also provides links to any other useful supporting documents or resources.

Useful links:

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Fundraising Ceilidh for Naloli

By Ross Ward | Published: May 11, 2012

We are having a fundraising ceilidh on Friday 18th May at 7.30pm in Teviot Debating Hall to support Naloli, our Malawian friend and colleague, who is currently recovering from Meningitis in the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.

Naloli has been seriously ill, she is a long way from home and family. We hope that this fundraising ceilidh will help raise money to support her on her road to recovery. Ceilidh dancing, Brazilian samba and Malawian music – it should be a great multi-cultural evening.

Buy a jigsaw piece here (which is your ceilidh ticket), print out the paypal receipt and bring it along on the night.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

More information can be found here:

 

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April Workshops 2012

By Ross Ward | Published: May 1, 2012

We would like to thank Kamuzu College of Nursing for hosting our workshop that took place the week of 16th April 2012 in Lilongwe.  This was during a difficult time for Malawi with the recent passing of the former President, and special thanks should go to all those that helped the workshop run so smoothly and successfully.

Participants from KCN and MCHS worked incredibly hard during the week to continue the creation of e-Learning materials to help support their curricula.  Our workshop had a focus on sustainability to ensure that the skills required for running such workshops in the future can continue long after our projects are completed.

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Creating resources at the workshop

You can view a summary of the workshop, and access the materials used by following the links below

 

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Upcoming Workshops – April 2012

By Ross Ward | Published: March 23, 2012

The next workshops have now been finalised and will be taking place in April 2012.  Once again we will be visiting both Lilongwe and Blantyre.

Lilongwe:  16th April – 20th April

Kamuzu College of Nursing will be hosting our workshop where we plan to build on the success of our previous workshops attended by participants from both KCN and MCHS.  One of our major aims of this workshop will be ensuring that KCN staff who are expeirenced in the creation of e-Learning resources have a hand in the training of their novice colleagues.

Since the last workshop the Curriculum Management System has been well used at KCN and the further development of the CMS will be a key aim of this workshop.  It is important that all staff are aware of the functionality of the system and what their role is in making their materials available and ensuring that it is up-to-date.

The CMS is going to be the driving force of this workshop to help staff work out what materials require further work and where new materials can be added to the topics to enhance the learning experience of the students.

Blantyre: 23rd April – 25th April

Our time in Blantyre for this trip will be less focussed on workshops; instead we will be offering hands-on technical support to help the infrastructure that is already in place within the College of Medicine.  We are looking forward to working with the ICT team, and their newest member Joel Kumwenda who has the responsibility of managing the CMS.

We shall be working together to identify how to make improvements to the service and respond to the feedback that has been received from staff and students.

This visit will also provide us with the opportunity to deliver some training on how to use the Primal Pictures software.  This will focus on how to use the software, as well as addressing how it can be used to aid the teaching of a number of topics.

Sustainability

Both of the workshops will have a continued focus on the sustainability of how e-Learning can continue to be developed and delivered long after this project has been completed.  We are making sure materials and training are in place so these workshops can continue to be delivered without the involvement of our team.  Where possible we are using the same e-Learning principles to allow participants of previous workshops access to materials that can be used again in the future.

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AMEE Presentation

By Ross Ward | Published: February 10, 2012

A presentation, by David Dewhurst,  describing the progress made in Projects led by the University of Edinburgh in support of medical, nursing and clinical officer education in Malawi was given at The Association of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Conference in Vienna, Austria in August 2011.

AMEE is one of the premier medical/healthcare education conferences in the world and its annual conferences regularly attract a global audience of over 1800 delegates.

The presentation was well-received and there were a number of useful contacts arising from the delegates questions.

Download PowerPoint File

All of the presentations that were given by the Learning Technology Section at the AMEE conference can be viewed on the LTS Website.

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Building capacity for e-learning for nurse training in Zambia and Ghana

By Ross Ward | Published: February 7, 2012

A THET-funded pilot project is developing e-learning capacity for nurse training in Zambia and
Ghana. http://www.thet.org/healthlinks/zambiaghananhs-education-for-scotland-nes-health-multi-link/

This global health partnership, co-ordinated by NHS Education for Scotland (NES): http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/ , is Chaired by Professor David Dewhurst (University of Edinburgh Medical and Veterinary College). Professor Dewhurst leads the Malawi e-learning collaboration and he and his team have provided major support to the THET project including lending their elearning suite for project meetings and providing guidance on development of e-learning resources.

Inaugural project meeting: Partners in Zambia, Ghana and Scotland link by skype

This has enabled partners to both communicate directly by skype (as above) and learn from the experience of the Malawi project. In particular, examples of e-learning resources created in Malawi, using Articulate Software, have been inspirational and instructive. Since its inaugural project meeting (June 2011) the THET project has been active on both consultation and development work.

You can download the full article by following this link.

Project Website

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HEAT Modules for Sub-Saharan Africa

By Ross Ward | Published: November 29, 2011

Our projects have always looked to try and find e-Learning materials that can be invaluable for supporting the different medical curricula in Malawi, as well as supporting people to create their own materials.

The Open University has been working on an ambitious project to create a series of openly available resources with a specific focus on health education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

HEAT is a radical programme launched in early 2011 by The Open University with a bold ambition – to reach and help train 250,000 frontline healthcare workers across sub-Saharan Africa by 2016.

By working in close collaboration with African Governments, NGOs and funding institutions, we believe that HEAT will transform access to healthcare in the region.

You can find more about the HEAT project from their website: http://www8.open.ac.uk/africa/heat/

Additionally you can access the current set of resources for yourself by following this link: http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=434431

 

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University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada receives support from University of Edinburgh for an e-Learning Project in Malawi

By Ross Ward | Published: October 28, 2011

University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada receives support from University of Edinburgh for an e-Learning Project in Malawi

In September, 2011 UNB signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kamuzu College of Nursing to exchange students and faculty working in the field of Health Sciences.   With funding from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Centre for Property Studies and the Faculty of Nursing will host four (4) KCN graduate students at UNB for one academic term between 2012 and 2014.

In October, 2011 UNB, Kamuzu College of Nursing, Mzuzu University, and Bunda College of Agriculture submitted a joint proposal to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to promote e-Learning in Malawi.  The proposal is very much in line with the projects led by the Learning Technology Section in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

The combination of these projects could have a significant impact on the methods Malawi Universities use to deliver Higher Education, and UNB looks forward to working with Kamuzu College of Nursing and the University of Edinburgh to advance health care education in Malawi.

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University of Edinburgh signs MOU with University of Malawi

By Ross Ward | Published: October 12, 2011

The close collaborative working relationship between the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh (CMVM, UoE) and the College of Medicine (COM, UoM) and Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN, UoM) of the University of Malawi has recently been formalized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU was signed by Professor Jonathan Seckl, Executive Dean CMVM, UoE, Dr Ken Maleta, Principal, COM, UoM and Dr Address Malata, Principal KCN, UoM. The partnership has been active since 2006 during which time the University of Edinburgh has led three projects working with the University of Malawi to use e-learning to transform medical and nurse education in Malawi.

The MOU, which runs initially for five years from October 2011, provides a framework to develop a long-term, collaborative relationship between the three partners that is responsive to their mutual needs in the area of academic and educational co-operation. It will provide a platform to further academic links and establish engagement in research activities which will enhance health research and health workforce capacity and capability within both institutions.

The broad objectives are to promote cooperation in teaching, research and service to the academic community in the area of medical and nursing education and through activities such as:

  • Building educational and IT infrastructure including the collaborative development of Curriculum Management Systems, Online Resource repositories and a CPD recording system
  • Supporting capacity building in medical and healthcare professional education
  • Sharing of academic materials, including online teaching, learning and assessment resources.
  • Collaborative research and publication.
  • Visits between universities by academic, technical and administrative staff.
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September Workshops 2011

By Ross Ward | Published: October 11, 2011

We would like to thank all of those who took part in our September workshops in Lilongwe and Blantyre.  In particular we would like to that those in Kamuzu College of Nursing, and College of Medicine who helped run and organise the workshops so smoothly.

Once again we have created a range of resources on a number of topics, and the enthusiasm has been wonderful.  The focus of these workshops has been to get resources finished and make them accessible to students through the CMS systems. We are looking forward to seeing these systems grow as more resources are uploaded and more staff and students use the CMS websites.

You can view summaries of the workshops at the following links:

 

 

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