We currently have two projects running in Malawi: Lifelong Medical Education Online, and e-Lice (e-Learning in Clinical Education). Both Scottish Government funded projects share a focus of introducing medical institutions in Malawi to the benefits of e-learning, and look to show how e-learning resources can be integrated into the curriculum to provide further support to self-directed study.
We have used our expertise in e-learning to share existing resources that have been created within The University of Edinburgh medical curriculum and link to specific areas of the curriculum for the College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Medicine, and Malawi College of Health Sciences.
We have hosted a number of workshops in Malawi aimed at training academics the basics in the creation of their own e-learning materials. A number of resources have now been created that have followed the process of identifying a learning need, scoping the outcomes, planning the resource, and then actually creating the resource using specially selected tools for e-learning.
We have recently delivered a large shipment of servers, and computers to the Kamazu College of Nursing with the aim of improving their infrastructure for supporting the ICT needs of staff and students. The new hardware will also make providing e-learning materials far faster and more reliable.
In addition to our e-learning objectives we have been working with the Medical Council of Malawi to see how an electronic approach to monitoring doctorâs CPD records could improve the current paper-based system. An online diary system has been created that aids the management of CPD across Malawi, but also ensures rural doctors with limited ICT access can still submit their records to the system.
