Transitioning to distance and e-learning: "rich pictures" from partners at the universities of Cape Town, Ghana and Nigeria (Enugu) 

It is evident from our collaborations and international higher education debates that educators in the fields of Health Policy and Systems Research and Public Health are revisiting and re-thinking how they deliver and how students access post-graduate programmes. This includes making increasing use of distance/blended learning and online and mobile (e-learning) technologies.

“I know that in computer science we have hardware and software. I didn’t know that this concept also applies to health systems and policy research”.

This insight came to Kofi Bobi-Barimah, lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, as a result of participating in CHEPSAA’s Introduction to Complex Health Systems and Introduction to Health Policy and Systems Research during the 2015 Winter School of the University of the Western Cape.

For educators, this is what it is all about: guiding students to those “a-ha moments” when they take on board threshold concepts; key ideas that forever transform their understanding.

It is with great sadness that we have noted the death of Prof Sam Adjei.

“Uncle Sam”, as he was affectionately known, was the first Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Centre for Health and Social Services and co-chair of Princefield University College Board.

He passed away on 7 February 2016.

Click here to learn more about Prof Adjei’s life and to post a tribute to him.

On celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015, the James P. Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) in Bangladesh conducted an extensive internal curriculum review of its Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree, recognising that the field of public health and the country context is changing. In February this year, Dr Vera Scott of the University of the Western Cape in South Africa represented CHEPSAA at a workshop that sought to take forward the recommendations of the curriculum review. In this blog, Vera writes about the curriculum review, the workshop to further develop the curriculum and other experiences and lessons from her journey.

The enthusiasm for health policy and systems work, the capacity to understand and conduct it, and the networks of people and organisations in support of it recently took an important step forward in Ghana with the inauguration of the Health Policy and Systems (HPS) New Year Seminars.

The two week long seminar series, which had its maiden run from 18-29 January 2016, brought together from all over the country more than 20 mid-level researchers with the aim of developing capacity for health systems leadership, practice and research. The participants worked in the health system in different capacities, including doctors, pharmacists and nurses, and represented a variety of organisations such as urban, rural and private hospitals, as well as district health teams.

In January 2015, CHEPSAA published two open access, master’s-level courses: Introduction to Complex Health Systems and Introduction to Health Policy and Systems Research. Since then, these courses have been downloaded from more than 50 countries around the world. Recently, materials from Introduction to Health Policy and Systems Research were used in teaching in China. This blog reflects on how the course was structured, how materials were used and adapted and students’ experiences of the course.

[Above: Explaining the Chinese health system to a Martian]