OneLearns - Online Education for Leaders in Nutrition and Sustainability

Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya are resource-limited African countries that experience unacceptably high rates of malnutrition among children and other health-related issues. The importance of training health workers to reduce these health problems is paramount. Many of these health workers can be trained online and this approach has twofold benefits where the training can be provided at much lower costs compared to face-to-face approaches.

We have created an online training program comprising three modules targeting government officials in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya working with education, agriculture, health and social welfare. The first module demonstrates the pros and cons of online learning in general and the Question-Based Learning (QBL) methodology in particular. The second module introduces concepts of digital health literacy and how to increase digital health literacy among both public health professionals and the general public. The third module covers the global sustainability goals with a focus on nutrition and public health.

The State-of-the-art of online training is based on research in the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University, US. In OLI they have shown that their QBL approach with online support can reduce learning time by 50%, with similar or improved results, at midterms and finals, as compared to traditional campus courses (Lovett et al., 2008). Nowadays, OLI courses are being used at more than 100 colleges and universities in the US, but the spread outside North America is limited. KTH has piloted the methodology since 2017 in Sweden and proven its value in various contexts and cultures.

Information about the project from KTH:s press releases (in Swedish) .

Recruitment Information

In 2020 we selected 25 participants from 72 applicants. In 2021 we selected 43 participants from 77 applicants. In 2023, we selected 32 participants from 94 applicants.

Promotion video of the OneLearns course from our Rwandan partner Society for Family Health (in English):

Video with voices from former participants:

Interactive information can be communicated here: www.facebook.com/OneLearns

The recruitment letter for 2023 is here: pdf (pdf 872 kB)

One answer from the very positive course evaluation:

Did the course meet your expectations?

"Beyond. The content and topics were beyond my expectations. For some modules, it was my first time to hear about them especially in Unit 1 (online learning ) and unit 2 (module 3 and 4 (digital health literacy in digital ecosystem was an eye opener*I am looking forward to explore it in my routine work). But also linkages between nutrition/SDGs with environment/equity was extremely a brain changer (I loved it). Unit 1 was abit difficult for me, may be because it was something new to me and may be due to the fact that it was an entry unit into the course. Online small group work during live sessions did not get well (some confusion to keep up with the pace and know who does what). Otherwise I am so greatful to KTH to have been given such an opportunity to participate into the amazing course. My sincere gratitude goes to all instructors for the knowledge and skills transferred to me. I am now confidently organizing a facebook campaign on Covid-19 in Haiti and involved in some other long term activities like initiating epidemic intelligence from open sources in Rwanda through MOH/RBC definately in collaboration with different stakeholders and partners. I do not feel intimated any more. If even if its something i do not understand, I search online, youtube and get hands on (I was not reflecting like this before)."

Here are two videos in Swedish about the methodology:

Sub-titled in Swedish:

Team

Katarina Bälter, Benti Geleta Buli, Feben Javan, Christine Persson Osowski at Mälardalen University

Funding

Swedish Institute

Project Duration

June 2020-June 2024