The inadequate density and distribution of health care providers is having a profoundly negative effect on health outcomes around the globe. In Africa in particular, too few physicians and supporting health care professionals are being trained to meet local needs. A key barrier to educating more health care providers is the lack of instructors to teach both basic and clinical sciences. This is complicated by the duplication of faculty efforts at multiple sites for courses which can now be completed online.In this planning grant, we will:Develop a low-cost and scalable process (dScribe) for converting existing educational materials into Open Educational Resources.Convert a set of educational materials from the medical, dental, and public health schools at the University of Michigan as a proof of concept.Develop a website with an integrated learning management system to facilitate delivery of educational materials based on specific diseases, educational outcomes, or entire curricular paths.Establish the commitments of all University of Michigan health sciences schools to the vision of Open Educational Resources for all curricular materials.Convene meetings with colleagues in South Africa and Ghana to identify how they could add their own materials to the site, adapt existing materials, or jointly generate materials with Michigan-African collaboration.Track costs and resources needed for all activities in preparation for a full proposal to be submitted by November 15, 2008.We believe this model will succeed because it responds to an imperative need, it capitalizes on our existing information technology used to train physicians and other health care providers, and builds on our existing long-term partnerships in Africa.

The University of Michigan, OER Africa, and four African university partners will develop a long term logic model and scalable, sustainable, collaborative content development programs for comprehensive, open, health professions curriculaIn 2008, Michigan used a Hewlett Foundation planning grant to hold a successful workshop and follow-up campus meetings. We now propose a one year effort to develop a sustainable and scalable OER program to support health education, particularly in developing countries. This effort will be a collaboration among the University of Michigan, OER Africa, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Town, and the University of the Western Cape.In this design phase we will:Engage university leadership in implementing institutional policy frameworks that facilitate the success of OER.Hold faculty development workshops to build institutional capacity in OER.Enhance an innovative, low-cost, and scalable process (dScribe) for converting educational materials into OER.Collaboratively develop educational materials as OER and deploy them in our respective curricula.Promote the collaboration and its outputs through a community of practice web site.Establish a framework for a longitudinal study of faculty productivity and the effect of OER on learning outcomes and provide feedback on socio-technical aspects of collaborative OER practices.Produce an evidence-based long-term logic model for Health OER based on a vision that multiple stakeholders will own, in which funders will invest, and which institutions are committed to sustaining. This consensus-driven model will be the basis of a Global Health OER follow-on proposal.

In 2009, the University of Michigan, OER Africa, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Town, and the University of the Western Cape used a Hewlett Foundation grant to develop a scalable OER program to support health education. We now propose a two-year program to deepen our African Health OER initiative while eventually moving from Hewlett Foundation support to a resource model built ona community of donors committed to addressing health challenges in the Millennium Development Goals, and institutional investment that makes OER production and use an integral part of the teaching and learning process in health schools. The proposed African Health OER Network is designed to strengthen the intellectual and policy infrastructure within and between African institutions. Our objective is to systematically draw in more African and, eventually, global participants to create, adapt, share, and use OER to the benefit of health education in Africa, while developing models of collaboration and sustainability that can be replicated in other regions of the world.The proposed African Health OER Network is structured to build on the OERs created and deployed during the 2009 Design Phase. These materials were selected due to pedagogical needs within health education in Africa, such as limited training materials available for certain conditions and diseases and materials that can augment the crowded lecture and ward-based training contexts. More information on those efforts can be found in the inputs and activities sections, below.In this phase we will:Ensure that the OER infrastructure model, successfully deployed during the design phase, maintains momentum with current participants and begins growing the Network while simultaneously seeking to expand the community of support.Aggregate a critical mass of African-produced health open educational resources published through both institutional and regional (oerafrica.org) repositories.Continue to enhance (e.g., through functionality and localization) an innovative, low-cost, and scalable process (dScribe) for converting educational materials into OER.Build on pilot and formative analyses undertaken in 2009 to establish the basis for an evidence chain that connects from faculty productivity and career satisfaction measures though efficacy in learning contexts to application of acquired knowledge in health care settings.

This instructional module will help you to develop an understanding of the various consequences of alcohol abuse and of the research processes used to measure this. The rest of the module will provide you with approaches to preventing alcohol problems, ranging from policy and environmental changes to educational and rehabilitation programmes. Some of the readings were chosen to illustrate the main concepts of the module using the following themes: youth, women, and foetal alcohol syndrome.

3-part lecture series given at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology about infections with Gram-negative obligate anaerobes

A complete blood count (CBC), also known as full blood count (FBC) or full blood exam (FBE) or blood panel, is a test requested by a doctor or other medical professional that gives information about the cells in a patient's blood.

This experiment demonstrates the effect of muscarinic agonists and its parasympathetic effects such as lacrimation (shedding of red tears), salivation, defaecation, urination pilo-erection, rhinorrhea, sweating and labored breathing.This module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within KNUST prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

This multimedia-based module is part of a series designed for medical students to assist in preparation for clinical examinations in gynaecology. This module explores basic guidelines and the components history taking.This module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within University of Ghana prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

This guideline has been produced by the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Unit at the Department of Community Health, University of Cape Town as part of its research in the field of pesticide hazards and pesticide safety. The support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in this regard is acknowledged.This guideline was produced for those persons responsible for the maintenance of health and safety measures at agricultural workplaces handling potentially hazardous organophosphate and carbarnate chemicals. It is primarily aimed at professional nursing and other medical staff charged with monitoring workers for pesticide exposure, but will be useful to all personnel involved in workplace health and safety wishing to understand the principles behind monitoring workers for pesticide exposure. The guidelines concentrate on monitoring for organophosphate and carabarnate insecticides because the technology is reasonably readily available, and the methodology well described. These chemicals are widely used, and are the most common cause of acute poisoning by pesticides. The guidelines have also been written bearing in mind the Hazardous Chemical Regulations (Regulation 556 of 25 August 1995 in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act) that include agricultural workplaces in addition to industry.

This multimedia-based module is part of a series designed for medical students to assist in preparation for clinical examinations in surgery. This module explores how to examine superficial swellings in breasts.The basic guidelines for surgery are similar to internal medicine. The disease profile, however, may vary. The basic process is: 1. History 2. Physical Examination 3. Integration of informationThis module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within University of Ghana prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

The Buruli ulcer disease is due to infection by Mycobacterium ulcerans. This programme describes the basic pathophysiology of the disease, the typical clinical presentations, and the management of cases with complicated features. The program should be informative for both medical students and practitioners who wish to increase their knowledge about this serious tropical disease.

How to work with Creative Commons and Open Education Resources.

This multimedia-based module is part of a series designed for medical students to assist in preparation for clinical examinations in paediatrics. This module explores the examination of the central nervous system, particularly facial nerve and hearing, in children.This module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within University of Ghana prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

This multimedia-based module is part of a series designed for medical students to assist in preparation for clinical examinations in paediatrics. This module explores the examination of the central nervous system, particularly smell and sight, in children.This module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within University of Ghana prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

This multimedia-based module is part of a series designed for medical students to assist in preparation for clinical examinations in paediatrics. This module explores the examination of the central nervous system, particularly of legs, in children.This module has been internally reviewed by a cross-disciplinary committee within University of Ghana prior to releasing as an Open Educational Resource.

A Caesarean section, also known as C-section, is a surgical procedure in which incisions are made through a mother's abdomen (laparotomy) and uterus (hysterotomy) to deliver one or more babies. It is usually performed when a vaginal delivery would put the baby's or mother's life or health at risk, although in recent times it has been also performed upon request for childbirths that could otherwise have been natural. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the rate of Caesarean sections should not exceed 15% in any country. This programme includes narrated surgical video of the procedure as well as interactive case exercises and a brief self-assessment.

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration arises from a small but lively meeting convened in Cape Town in September 2007. The aim of this meeting was to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices in education.

The first concrete outcome of this meeting is the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. It is at once a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment. It meant to spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow.

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes, which are bacteria and archaea. Viruses, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied. In short; microbiology refers to the study of life and organisms that are too small to be seen with the naked eye.Microbiology is a broad term which includes virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology and other branches.Microbiology is researched actively, and the field is advancing continually. We have probably only studied about one percent of all of the microbe species on Earth. Although microbes were first observed over three hundred years ago, the field of microbiology can be said to be in its infancy relative to older biological disciplines such as zoology and botany.

The draft review examines the link between climate change and health with special reference to the Southern African region (SADC countries). It attempts to set the scene for determining pertinent research priorities in the region to contribute to knowledge on the one hand, and for identification, implementation and evaluation of adaptation interventions that are likely to be appropriate and effective in the region. This review has been conducted by Strategic Evaluation, Advisory and Development Consulting (SEAD), a health consultancy together with the COEHR, and is part of the Regional Climate Change Programme (RCPP) led by One World Sustainable Investments.While this is currently a research work which outlines research and development objectives, it is envisaged that much of the material reviewed is also suitable for inclusion in teaching - particularly postgraduate teaching at University Masters level.