Fundamentals of Occupational Safety and Health: Using Video-taped Lectures to Enhance Training Depth

Introduction
The World Health Organization has cased based curricula which take a public health approach to occupational health risk assessment and risk management for increasing the awareness, knowledge and skills for health care providers in occupational health. http://uic.edu/sph/glakes/who_modules/. The materials are organized into three 16-hour, case based modules and encompasses many disciplines-- toxicology, epidemiology, industrial hygiene, and safety and employ the methods of hazard/risk identification, characterization, and evaluation and touch on issues related to policy and ethics.

Methods
NIOH, South Africa in partnership with the SPH (UIC), adapted the materials into a 35 hour case based course to comprehensively address health and safety problems in a variety of economic sectors. Additionally, the materials were structured into 90 minute segments. Each segment included a lecture (20-35 minutes) and practical activity. There were four instructors with content area expertise and two facilitators. Course lectures were video-taped to be used as an e- learning tool for the purpose of developing capacity through training OH in a cost effective manner.

Results
The week-long course was attended by 96 participants from public and private sectors. Majority of participants were from South Africa, and four participants from other African countries. The participants were both novice as well as experienced practitioners from a wide range of OH disciplines.

Discussion
Course evaluations indicated that the course met or exceeded participant’s expectations. Following the course ten additional courses were presented in all provinces within South Africa for the Public Service. Each course was attended by 30-50 participants and was led by a single instructor with the use of the video-taped lectures. This project demonstrated the usefulness of video-taped lectures, as an e-learning tool, for conducting complex and specialized training using one or two instructors. It demonstrates an effective manner of providing affordable training to build OH capacity in developing economies.