Dear GKD Members, I would like to add to this discussion on online professional development by telling you of our experience in training lab technicians and midwives in the Philippines. I work for the Department of Health in Manila, and in 1997 we built the first Mutimedia Center of Excellence (MMCE) whose aim was to develop multimedia and print materials for training healthcare professionals. MMCE staff were trained to develop high-quality, interactive, multimedia curricula using CD-ROMs. Additional skills were taught including video and print production.
Two CD's were produced; one aimed to teach family planning counseling to midwives, and the other trained laboratory technicians to more accurately screen blood samples for HIV infection. They were both important areas that had gaps in the training programs. We learned a lot of lessons from that experience. The first question was whether we could use CDs to train midwives because this group had no experience at all with computers. They had never touched a computer and didn't know what a "mouse" was except for a little furry rodent. But we did not have training in family planning counseling at that time for midwives and it was needed because the midwives are often the main source of information on family planning to husbands and wives. So we decided to try making the CD training. The first problem we ran into was content. Some international agencies wanted us to use their "international" content. But we were determined to use the content that was appropriate for our country and culture. The second problem was using the skills we had learned in the Multimedia Center project to create the CDs from design through production. With the guidance of our US multimedia trainers we did create the CD ourselves. We tested it with the midwives with a "taste test" to see if they liked using the CD and a "skills test" to see if they learned the material. We found that this group of mostly middle aged women who had never touched a computer really loved using the CDs. They learned to use the mouse in the first few minutes. They all said they would encourage other midwives to use the CDs and that they enjoyed using it. The skills test showed that they had learned the material and understood the methods. The second CD was for training lab technicians. This was a more educated group and many of them had some computer experience although it was mainly using Word or Excel. That CD was more demanding because we had to be sure that the content was perfectly accurate and followed the protocols. This was also important content because we did not have enough trainers to train all lab techs thoroughly in how to screen for HIV/AIDS, and the test kits that they would have to use for the training were very expensive. When we tested the CDs we got the same very positive reaction from the lab techs. They loved using the CDs. The knowledge test showed that they did learn as well as they did in a classroom. The next step was to get the CDs out to the whole country. It was important to put them out beyond Manila because the Department of Health had decentralized most of the services to the lower levels. We had a project that put computers into training offices around the country that the midwives could use, and also into the labs for training the lab techs. The result has been interesting. We have found that one of the most important resources that is needed to make this kind of training successful is having the institutions that are already set up to do training and can integrate the CD training into their programs. For the lab techs, it was easier because they were already used to taking 'technical' courses by the nature of their work and education, and also the lab training offices were already established to provide training and lab techs were used to going there for training. For the midwives, things were difficult because they were not so used to going somewhere for formal training and there were no training offices that could easily put in the computers and where the midwives were used to going. This difference made a major difference in how much the CD curriculum was actually used. The midwives had a harder time because the 'institutional infrastructure' of formal classrooms with computers was not established. Therefore our experience was that the "right" resources for professional development have to include the technical skills to develop good computer based programs, the knowledge and power to use the content that is appropriate for one's own country and community, and the institutions that will provide the training, where the target group is used to going for training. The institutions include not only the physical classrooms, laboratories, clinics, computers, internet access, but also the places where the trainees are already used to going for training or there are enough incentives to encourage them to go for the training. Angelina Sebial Dept. of Health Manila, Philippines ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
