International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Let’s Take it to the Clouds: The Potential of Educational Innovations, Including Blended Learning, for Capacity Building in Developing Countries

Document Type : Perspective

Authors
Hannah Marrinan 1
Sonja Firth 1
David Hipgrave 2
Eliana Jimenez-Soto 1
1 School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
2 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New York City, NY, USA
10.15171/ijhpm.2015.121
Abstract
In modern decentralised health systems, district and local managers are increasingly responsible for financing, managing, and delivering healthcare. However, their lack of adequate skills and competencies are a critical barrier to improved performance of health systems. Given the financial and human resource, constraints of relying on traditional face-to-face training to upskill a large and dispersed number of health managers, governments, and donors must look to exploit advances in the education sector. In recent years, education providers around the world have been experimenting with blended learning; that is, amalgamating traditional face-to-face education with web-based learning to reduce costs and enrol larger numbers of students. Access to improved information and communication technology (ICT) has been the major catalyst for such pedagogical innovations. We argue that with many developing countries already improving their ICT systems, the question is not whether but how to employ technology to facilitate the continuous professional development of district and local health managers in decentralised settings.
Keywords
Blended Learning
Decentralisation
Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)
Education
Health Managers
Subjects
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  • Received Date 10 May 2015
  • Revised Date 24 June 2015
  • Accepted Date 25 June 2015
  • First Published Date 01 September 2015
  • Published Date 01 September 2015