Health Informatics/Distance Learning Readiness Assessment

[litlfred]

Hello Everyone,
I have just uploaded to the group site a health informatics and
distance learning assessment that was developed for and administered
at:
https://sites.google.com/site/reachinformatics/

A few words about its development and purpose. We asked about which
health informatics competencies they would be interested in for future
trainings based on a condensed version of the IMIA 2000 competencies
for the EHR domain:
www.imia.org/pubdocs/rec_english.pdf
We were also interested in determining what are the available
resources for distance of eLearning to provide a baseline for future
development of HIBBs modules.

It has a Creative Commons license, so please feel free to reuse it if
appropriate. If you do so, please bear in mind that it is a bit long,
as it took 35 minutes for the participants to complete, and you may
wish to split it up into two assessments: one for focusing on
background and health informatics readiness, and one on distance
learning.

Carol Bales will be following this message up with a summary of the
results. Please contact her or me directly if you would like access
to the raw data.

Cheers.
-carl

[carol bales]

The Health Informatics Learning Readiness Assessment was based on an
In-Country Needs Assessment developed by the NC Center for Public
Health Preparedness (NCCPHP) http://nccphp.sph.unc.edu/index.htm and
was modified with permission. NCCPHP is advising the head of the HRH
Global Resource Center (GRC) http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/ on
developing an eLearning strategy and platform. In the next few months,
the GRC will be redesigned to host eLearning courses. One of the first
courses will likely be an HRIS administrator course.

We felt the REACH – Informatics participants closely represented the
intended target audience for the future HRIS course. Eight
participants filled out the assessment. Here are some of the results
we found notable:
- All are from Kenya
- 5 have worked in health informatics for 3 years or more
- All have college degrees
- Highest ranking concerns/barriers to distance-based learning were:
o Lack of appropriate money/funds
o Lack of appropriate equipment
o Access to appropriate technology
- Highest ranking factors motivating them to engage in distance-based
learning were:
o Ability to expand professional network
o Increased on-the-job competency
o Interaction with other public health and medical professionals
o Opportunity to meet people outside of country or region
- 7 have access to a computer for work-related learning
o 5 share their computer with 1 or more people
o 3 do not have access to a printer
o 2 do not have a CD/DVD drive
o All can hear sound on their computers
o 2 do not have an internet connection
o 7 cannot watch an instructional video for at least one hour
- 5 can devote 4-6 hours/week of work time to a distance-based
learning class. 1 said they could not devote any time.
- For the question regarding participants’ level of familiarity with
different distance-based learning delivery methods, the answers
varied widely and 3 people left this section blank. Most answers were
‘somewhat confident’ or ‘not at all confident.’

Participants’ feedback was shared with representatives from the GRC,
NCCPHP, REACH-Informatics, and the Regenstrief Institute of the
University of Indiana (a supporter of the training). Feedback will
inform the GRC’s future distance-based readiness assessments, the
content and presentation of the first HRIS eLearning course, and other
future informatics trainings.

The results highlight challenges with conducting distance-based
courses in low-resource countries such as Kenya. To address issues
with shared equipment, lack of printers/cd players, and unreliable
internet, future eLearning courses should be offered in multiple
modalities including print and CD. To address participants'
unfamiliarity with distance-based learning, a start-up/tutorial
document with screen shots should be provided.

The results also indicate that participants are eager to engage in
distance-based learning. After reviewing the results, the NCCPHP said
participants’ interest in networking should be capitalized on. NCCPHP
suggested different ways to include a social aspect to promote
networking, such as beginning courses with informal ‘ice breakers,’
providing a blog or discussion board, or implementing something like
GeoChat http://instedd.org/geochat, which would involve SMS text
messaging among students.

As Carl mentioned, there are tweaks we would make before using this
assessment again, such as dividing it into two separate documents. In
addition, many questions should be combined to cut down on length (see
question #2 and 3 for an example). The questions that involve ranking
a series of statements could be reformatted or rephrased to avoid
confusion and ensure participants are following instructions. Also,
questions about mobile phone/SMS text messaging accessibility should
be added.