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The potential of an online educational platform to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals: a mixed-methods evaluation of the Peoples-uni online platform
- Source :
- Health Research Policy and Systems, Health Research Policy and Systems, Vol 16, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- BioMed Central, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Background This paper reports on an online platform, People’s Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni), as a means of enhancing access to master’s level public health education for health professionals. Peoples-uni seeks to improve population health in low- and middle-income countries by building public health capacity through e-learning at very low cost. We report here an evaluation of the Peoples-uni programme, conducted within the context of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning” by 2030. The evaluation seeks to address the following three questions: (1) Did Peoples-uni meet its intended goals? (2) What were the different types of impacts that students experienced? (3) What suggestions for future changes in Peoples-uni did students recommend? Methods A mixed methods evaluation consisted of two parts, namely an online survey and a telephone interview. A total of 119 master’s level graduates were invited to participate; responses were obtained from 71 of those invited, giving a response rate of 60%. Respondents were spread across 31 countries. Interviews were conducted with 18 respondents. Results There was strong evidence that Peoples-uni had achieved its stated goals. Potential impacts on students included knowledge to enhance practice and appreciation of context, enhanced research capacity through knowledge of public health, critical thinking and evidence-based programming, and empowerment of students about the potential of education as a means of improving their lives. Accreditation through future partnerships with local universities was recommended by students. Conclusions Peoples-uni has been able to deliver a credible public health master’s level educational programme, with positive impacts on the students who graduated. Challenges are to find a way to accredit the programme to ensure its sustainability and to see how to take full advantage of the current, and future, graduates to turn this from an education programme into a capacity-building programme with real impact.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Capacity Building
Universities
media_common.quotation_subject
Health Personnel
Lifelong learning
Sustainable Development Goals
Population health
Health administration
Accreditation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Education, Professional
Political science
Surveys and Questionnaires
medicine
Humans
Learning
030212 general & internal medicine
Education, Graduate
Empowerment
Students
Online education
Health policy
media_common
Medical education
Internet
evaluation
lcsh:Public aspects of medicine
030503 health policy & services
Health Policy
Public health
Research
Health services research
lcsh:RA1-1270
Sustainable Development
Evidence-Based Practice
Health education
Curriculum
Public Health
0305 other medical science
Goals
Program Evaluation
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14784505
- Volume :
- 16
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Health Research Policy and Systems
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....174c9de9a783884949fd2e35d99d2ab3