Expanding reproductive health learning opportunities in low-resource settings: technology-assisted learning centers.
Norton Tc, Sullivan Rl, Susan Griffey · 2004
Given preservice education and inservice training institutions with limited resources many students and healthcare professionals in low--resource settings have few options for staying up--to--date in their health fields. To achieve sustainable development of updated healthcare professionals international donor organizations are turning to information and communication technology (ICT). Since 1999 JHPIEGO Corporation an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been establishing Technology-Assisted Learning Centers (TALCs) at key health sciences schools and inservice training centers in countries such as Bolivia Malawi Haiti Nepal and Uganda. As JHPIEGO works to integrate TALCs with other efforts to strengthen curriculum and training systems it has seen disparate outcomes of the TALCs depending largely on variables of the host institutions and telecommunications infrastructures. This paper discusses the lessons learned and development outcomes of expanding health education opportunities through TALCs. (authors)