Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world

Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA (Prof J Frenk MD); China Medical Board, Cambridge, MA, USA (L Chen MD); Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan (Prof Z A Bhutta PhD); George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA (Prof J Cohen MD); Independent member of House of Lords, London, UK (N Crisp KCB); James P Grant School of Public Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Prof T Evans MD); US Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA (H Fineberg MD, P Kelley MD); School of Public Health Universidad Peruana Cayetano, Heredia, Lima, Peru (Prof P Garcia MD); Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, China (Prof Y Ke MD); National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa (B Kistnasamy MD); School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA (Prof A Meleis PhD); University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada (Prof D Naylor MD); The Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY, USA (A Pablos-Mendez MD); Public Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world

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Health Professionals for a New Century: Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are classes delivered in an online environment with several features that are different from previous approaches to online education The effectiveness of MOOCs is an open question as completion rates are substantially less than traditional online education courses The objective of this study is to identify factors that enhance an individual' intention to continue using MOOCs, which a limited amount of research has previously explored A research model based on the information systems continuance expectation-confirmation model is proposed and tested with data collected in a large-scale study The research model explained a substantial percentage of the variance for the intention to continue using MOOCs, which is significantly influenced by perceived reputation, perceived openness, perceived usefulness, perceived, and user satisfaction Perceived reputation and perceived openness were the strongest predictors and have not previously been examined in the context of MOOCs This study explores what influences an individual's intention to continue using MOOCsThis study examines the role of openness and reputation in the context of MOOCsReputation and openness are the strongest predictors of continuance to use MOOCs

Understanding the MOOCs continuance

Part of the groundbreaking Connecting with e-Learning series, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning provides effective, working examples to engage learners with authentic tasks in online settings. As technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective teaching and learning opportunities, students and teachers are no longer content to accept familiar classroom or lecture-based pedagogies that rely on information delivery and little else. Situated and constructivist theories advocate that learning is best achieved in circumstances resembling the real-life application of knowledge. While there are multiple learning design models that share similar foundations, authentic e-learning tasks go beyond process to become complex, sustained activities that draw on realistic situations to produce realistic outcomes.

A Guide to Authentic e-Learning

In 2008, a new term emerged in the already crowded e-learning landscape: MOOC, or massive open online course. Lifelong learners can now use various tools to build and manage their own learning networks, and MOOCs may provide opportunities to test such networks. This paper focuses on the technological aspects of one MOOC, the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08) course, in order to investigate lifelong learners’ attitudes towards learning network technologies. The research framework is represented by three perspectives: (a) lifelong learning in relation to open education, with a focus on the effective use of learning tools; (b) the more recent personal knowledge management (PKM) skills approach; and (c) the usability of web-based learning tools. 

Findings from a survey of CCK08 participants show that the course attracted mainly adult, informal learners, who were unconcerned about course completion and who cited a lack of time as the main reason for incompletion. Time constraints, language barriers, and ICT skills affected the participants’ choice of tools; for example, learners favoured the passive, filtered mailing list over interactive but time-consuming discussion forums and blogs. Some recommendations for future MOOCs include highlighting the pedagogical purpose of the tools offered (e.g., learning network skill-building) and stating clearly that the learners can choose which tools they prefer to use. Further research on sustainability and instructor workload issues should be conducted to determine the cost and effectiveness of MOOCs. Investigation is also necessary to understand whether such terms as course , drop-out , and attrition are appropriate in relation to MOOCs.

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The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course Tools

Given the abundance of open education initiatives that aim to make educational assets freely available online, the time seems ripe to explore the potential of open education to transform the economics and ecology of education. Despite the diversity of tools and resources already availablefrom well-packaged course materials to simple games, for students, self-learners, faculty, and educational institutionswe have yet to take full advantage of shared knowledge about how these are being used, what local innovations are emerging, and how to learn from and build on the experiences of others. Opening Up Education argues that we must develop not only the technical capability but also the intellectual capacity for transforming tacit pedagogical knowledge into commonly usable and visible knowledge: by providing incentives for faculty to use (and contribute to) open education goods, and by looking beyond institutional boundaries to connect a variety of settings and open source entrepreneurs. These essays by leaders in open education describe successes, challenges, and opportunities they have found in a range of open education initiatives. They approachfrom both macro and micro perspectivesthe central question of how open education tools, resources, and knowledge can improve the quality of education. The contributors (from leading foundations, academic institutions, associations, and projects) discuss the strategic underpinnings of their efforts first in terms of technology, then content, and finally knowledge. They also address the impact of their projects, and how close they come to achieving a vision of sustainable, transformative educational opportunities that amounts to much more than pervasive technology. Contributors: Richard Baraniuk, Randy Bass, Trent Batson, Dan Bernstein, John Seely Brown, Barbara Cambridge, Tom Carey, Catherine Casserly, James Dalziel, Bernadine Chuck Fong, Richard Gale, Gerard Hanley, Diane Harley, Mary Huber, Pat Hutchings, Toru Iiyoshi, David Kahle, M. S. Vijay Kumar, Andy Lane, Diana Laurillard, Stuart Lee, Steve Lerman, Marilyn Lombardi, Phil Long, Clifford Lynch, Christopher Mackie, Anne Margulies, Owen McGrath, Flora McMartin, Shigeru Miyagawa, Diana Oblinger, Neeru Paharia, Cheryl Richardson, Marshall Smith, Candace Thille, Edward Walker, and David Wiley Through the support of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, an electronic version of this book is openly available under a Creative Commons license on The MIT Press website.

Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge

Opening Up Education

As India marches rapidly towards an ambitious agenda of economic and social advancement, one of the greatest challenges it faces is to provide extensive access to quality higher education opportunities. An evident and expanding Open Education Resources movement offers great promise for meeting this challenge through initiatives that make quality tools, content and practice widely available. Accordingly, India’s National Knowledge Commission launched a process to explore and leverage these initiatives for adoption and adaptation, as well as to serve as a model for further indigenous efforts. This paper outlines issues and recommendations that address organisational considerations and infrastructure readiness as part of a systemic and sustainable strategy to make effective use of Open Educational Resources for scaling educational opportunity and excellence in the Indian context.

Open Educational Resources in India's National Development

Since MIT’s bold announcement of the OpenCourseWare initiative in 2001, the content of over 700 of its courses have been published on the Web and made available for free to the world. Important infrastructure initiatives have also been launched recently with a view to enabling the sustainable implementation of these educational programmes, through strengthening organizational capacity as well as through building open, standards-based technology. Each of these initiatives point to a rich palette of transformational possibilities for education; together with the growing open source movement, they offer glimpses of a sustainable ecology of substantial and quality educational resources. This discussion piece will highlight some of the educational opportunity presented by MIT’s current information technology-enabled educational agenda and related initiatives, along with their strategic underpinnings and implications. It will address various dimensions of their impact on the form and function of education. It will examine how these ambitious programmes achieve a vision characterized by an abundance of sustainable, transformative educational opportunities, not merely pervasive technology. DOI: 10.1080/09687760500376512

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M. S. Vijay Kumar

Papers

Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge

Opening Up Education

Open Educational Resources in India's National Development

From Open Resources to Educational Opportunity

The Case for Open Education Resources Distance and Distributed Education to Support the Growing Knowledge Economy in India