Tomorrow's leaders in health promotion are being educated at American University today.

 

Curriculum Development in Health Promotion and Distance Learning

International Seminar in Wales

This outline was prepared as a means of identifying some of the relevant issues that relate to providing health promotion programs and courses through a distance education approach. A discussion of these issues and their implications for curriculum design and development are important factors for strategic planning. Global remote education and training will be part of the future of health promotion.

Introduction

  • We do not have the answers or certainly all of them, but we're thinking about them. Collectively we can come closer to addressing our individual and shared needs.
  • There are unmet needs and they will increase because they will be driven by some of the megatrends (changing demographics, information age/revolution, globalization, advances of technology, new ways of thinking, demand for new/better, more efficient ways of doing things, diffusion of technology).
  • The new world order calls for collaboration and optimal use of and access to information and resources.
  • All of these aspects can be facilitated or enabled through technology which can be used to overcome or lessen the limitations of geography, time, unequal resources, culture, language, time etc.

Problems/needs

  • Old - staying competitive for students, inadequate resources, localized resources, geography, cost, time, limitations of teaching to multiple learning channels consistency/standardization
  • New - overabundance of information, time and priority demands, different types of learners, new teaching and service provision paradigms
  • Technology revolution - too much going on too fast and too much hype (panacea) new ways (paradigms) of looking at things - however, there are probably as many good ideas as bad ones

Definitions

  • Distance learning --> virtual university, remote education, distributed education/programming, facilitated by technology
  • put into context here how this contributes to curriculum development

What's possible and what's not

  • You can never replace the one-to-one interaction with a professor; but not all of that is bad
  • Technology can help erase or blur some of the boundaries impose by geography, time, culture, language, intelligence

Advantages

  • reusable resources - instructors/staff, course materials, accumulated knowledge, special events
  • anytime, anywhere, anyone - not time or location dependent
  • multimodal, and customized - multiple learning channels, pace, individualized, flexible schedules, on-your-time responses
  • unlimited access to instructors
  • multiple opportunities for collaboration
  • a way to test/do new ways of learning and providing service

Disadvantages

  • touch/contact - with professor
  • discourse/in-depth treatment of topic in a single session - complex interactions between instructor and student (s)
  • class/peer - social interaction, peer learning, participation
  • developing and supporting technology literacy/competency
  • preparation/rehearsal time
  • training/educating/orienting instructors/staff who are competent to offer distance learning
  • evaluation - tool are new

What has changed

  • different kind of student
  • technology and telecommunications advancements
  • global emphasis
  • everyone is looking at it

New approaches and solutions

  • What are your goals and objectives and how can technology facilitate that? - select the right tool (s) people to do it, provide the resources and evaluate it (was it effective, efficient, did they like it?)
  • Web pages - great for information - but must be rethought, repackaged - non-linear and interactive
  • E-mail - 1 - 1, one to many (send/reply to all), listserve (many to one) - (bulletin board), IRC (Internet relay chat), collaboratory (shared environment)-- there is a delay
  • Store and Forward vs. Real-time, Asynchronous vs. Synchronous
  • Multimedia - Shockwave, VRML, Real Audio (streaming),
  • Simulations - dressed rehearsal
  • Supercourses - Global Health Initiatives - epidemiology
  • Web/Java - multiple opportunities
  • Video Conferencing/Broadcasting

Mistakes and Barriers

  • Unrealistic expectations -
  • Administrative considerations - reimbursement, credit and certification, security and authentication
  • Allocation of resources and competing priorities
  • Business considerations - finding your niche, competition
  • Immature technology - tools, models, evaluation, experience
  • Technology - not enough, too much, too expensive, too much training (upside)
  • Disparities in service/access - standardization,
  • Support (upside and backside) - on-line support
  • Bad assumptions
  • This is a panacea
  • It's the same
  • You can/should put your lectures on the web or via e-mail
  • Your students will be in the room

Why this will work - what makes this better/unique

  • realistic
  • think it through

Some success stories

  • Open university - UK
  • GLOSAS - Global Lecture Hall - University of Texas
  • George Washington University - Health Sciences Department

The Future

  • technology will not be a limitation
  • it will have matured
  • real time will be widely available
  • cross-cultural -
  • language -
  • multimodal -
  • universal access -
  • intelligent systems -

Take-a-ways

  • Handout
  • Listserve
  • Web page
  • Resources

 

This page resides was designed by John Studach. Last updated on Septermber 11, 1998.

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Last Updated: December 10, 2001