Would you quit an online course if you repeatedly encountered this during a download? If you said no, you have a lot more patience than I do. Late last year, I tried, and failed, for an entire week to download a necessary player for an intro to CS edX course. I ultimately quit the course.
Sadly, the picture above is an actual screenshot I took, not a random image I found on the internet. So what do we do when this is the battle we face as educators?
Background
My placement organisation is the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), a Ugandan not-for-profit whose mission is to “strengthen health systems in Africa, with a strong emphasis on infectious diseases, through research and capacity development.” Established within Makerere University, the Institute began life in 2002 and currently focuses on five main programmes: Laboratory Services; Outreach; Prevention, Care, & Treatment; Research; and Training & Capacity Development.
As the Distance Learning Officer at IDI, I sit within the Training & Capacity Development programme which provides high-quality, evidence-based training to build the capacity of health practitioners. The trainings are classroom-based, blended, and even come in the form of mentorships.
In 2010, with the help of our Global Health Corps fellows, IDI entered the world of distance learning. The main goal of this effort is to meet the needs of trainees while minimising disruption to their work. Over the past 5 years, IDI has continued to rely on GHC fellows to forward its distance learning programme.
Technologies
To overcome the challenge of little to no access to reliable internet, IDI has successfully used a combination of technologies – Poodle, ATIC, and SMS – to create a fully supported training experience from initial presentation and delivery to concurrent support to final follow-up.
Poodle
While running online courses, we currently use Moodle as our Learning Management System. However, without quality internet, Moodle is pretty irrelevant.
As a result, we’ve taken advantage of Poodle for various online courses. Poodle is a free and open-source, offline virtual learning environment that can be saved onto a USB. We typically bring participants in for an introductory face-to-face session at which time they can be given USBs loaded with Poodle. The benefit of Poodle is that it maintains the same structure you see on Moodle.
ATIC
To support distance learning courses, IDI uses its already existent AIDS Treatment Information Centre (ATIC). Introduced in 2004, the ATIC uses telephone and computer tools to provide two-way services to healthcare workers in the field. Healthcare workers can call the toll-free ATIC number to receive immediate advice on the management of diseases, and IDI can conversely call healthcare workers to provide up-to-date information.
During the delivery of distance learning courses, trainees are provided with the ATIC number and encouraged to call-in with technical questions related to both the platform and the content of the course. My colleagues also use the line to check-in with the participants about their progress during the course.
SMS
Finally, to provide follow-up of training, IDI has successfully used an SMS system built by Dmark. As part of a Stop Malaria Project, 95 laboratory personnel were sent quiz questions to ascertain their retention of knowledge acquired during a training. 25 quiz questions were sent – including 21 multiple choice and 4 free-response – over the course of 13 weeks.
Future
Until Facebook’s drones and Google’s Project Loon provide internet for the entire world, we’ll have to keep thinking of ways to put the “e” back in eLearning.