Although the number of occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals in developed countries is limited, they are markedly scarce in developed countries. Without them, health protection of people at work is unlikely to be effective.  It is imperative to build human capacity through training. However, this requires appropriate training courses and experienced academics, both of which are also scarce in low resource settings.¹ Access to contact courses is limited by the availability of places, time demands, and the costs of travel and accommodation.   Distance learning and eLearning could substantially increase the access to training but there is a lack of training materials. Those which do exist, together with the necessary expertise, are mainly located in high income countries. Therefore, one way of addressing these problems is through the development of a learning repository (LR) of open access digital learning materials and sharing expertise through eLearning. This would facilitate the development of faculty and support those institutions that exist regionally in less developed settings.¹ This paper describes initiatives to create a global repository of learning materials and the way forward.

Definition of the learning repository

A LR is created to provide access to digital educational materials and its content or metadata reflects the intention that these materials be used in an educational context.² It is a system for the storage, location and retrieval of electronic content. These materials should be open education resources (OER), namely education resources freely available for use by educators and learners without the need to pay royalties or licence fees.³ Furthermore, it aims to promote a “community of practice” (COP) consisting of contributors and users, who will use and improve the materials. The COP is a group of individuals with a shared goal related to teaching and learning and who are either currently using the LR or may in the future use it.⁴ The community can be differentiated into the core group who develop and use the materials and are involved in the management of the repository, and the wider community of stakeholders or actors who could potentially use the repository. The people in both groups can include teachers, students, support staff and managers. In the core group, the contributors would share learning materials that they have developed and guide academics without experience in electronic learning materials to adapt existing ones, develop new ones and use them correctly. The users would identify materials in the repository and participate in their adaptation for use in their specific setting, or if they have the necessary expertise, would independently adapt them. Adapted materials would be re-deposited into the repository.

Initiatives to create a global repository of learning materials

Distance learning and eLearning in OHS has been piloted at various institutions around the world. In 2009, a network of educators in OHS formed to develop a LR to expand training capacity at institutions across southern Africa. The network had its origins in two Southern African programmes in OHS, the WAHSA programme and the University of Michigan/Fogarty International Center Southern African Programme in OEH.

At the 29^th ICOH, numerous papers on learning materials including the Geolibrary developed by Leslie Nickels were presented. Jonny Myers noted the need to integrate educational initiatives into the development of a LR as a means of addressing capacity problems at the Scientific Committee on Education and Training in Occupational Health meeting. Frank van Dijk, John Harrison and Paul Smits organized a special session on international support for professional education for basic occupational health services. Their survey of 15 delegates, from a wide range of countries, indicated that there was support for a LR, materials exist and there was a need to identify educational and topic experts.

Subsequently, Objective 3, Priority 3.2 of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for OH (CCs), part of Global Plan of Action on Workers’ Health (GPAWH) for the period 2009 – 2012, became the development of LR on training and education for capacity building. The purpose of this priority area is to adapt and disseminate curricula, training materials and training for international capacity building in OH. A survey of WHO CCs identified the existence of numerous resources amongst CCs.

In October 2009 in Geneva, following a meeting and workshop for experts from CCs and international partners resulted in a plan for creating an OER LR and a community of educators and maximizing participation of local and regional educators. Points agreed related to the functions to be incorporated in the LR, materials, technological aspects, the social networking dimension, evaluation of the LR, and marketing the LR.

In February 2010 a proposal for a WHO OER LR in OHS with an associated network of educators was developed.⁵ The overall aim was to increase access to education and training in OHS for both generalist and specialist professionals globally. The LR was envisaged as part of a WHO OSH platform for capacity development and that other international organizations, such as ICOH and ILO, would participate. Other components would be a repository of information and tools, and an expert consultancy service.  Great importance would be given to the inclusion of materials that put research into practice.

Subsequently, a WHO supported small capacity website portal for learning materials for basic care materials has been launched www.workershealtheducation.org. The work plan for 2012 – 2017 in terms of the Objective 3.2 of the GPAWH will continue to promote the initiative. Finally, at this ICOH 2012, in Cancun Mexico, there will be oral paper sessions and meetings on the development of global/ regional LR and information sharing.

Conclusions

A LR which includes the best evidence-based OER learning materials will facilitate OHS human capacity development. The initiative needs to be actively supported and ‘owned’ by an international community of educators and practitioners who contribute to and use the materials. Its success is dependent upon sharing and will require active promotion, support, and participation by OHS professionals on a global basis.

References

1. Ryan A, Myers J and Grainger L. Proposal for a WHO open educational resource learning repository in occupational health with associated network of educators. South Africa: UCT OH Collaborating Centre; 25 February 2010.
2. Holden C. From Local Challenges to a Global Community: Learning Repositories and the Global Learning Repositories Summit. Version 1.0 November 11, 2003. Madison, Wisconsin: Academic ADL Co-Lab. Available at http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/FinalSummitReport.pdf  Accessed on 12 July 2009.

3.  OER Africa. The Potential of Open Educational Resources. Concept Paper Prepared by OER Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: OER Africa; 2009. http://oerafrica.org Accessed on 12 July 2009.

1. Margaryan A, Milligan C and Douglas P. Community dimensions of learning object repositories. Community Dimensions of Learning Object Repositories (CD-LOR) Project. Deliverable 9: Structured guidelines for setting up LORs. v1.0 April 2007. Available at: http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/cd-lor/documents/CD-LOR_Structured_Guidelines_v1p0_001.pdf. Accessed on 20 May 2009.
2. van Dijk F, Grainger L, Myers J, Leino T, Harrison J,  Nickels L, Radon K, Wagner N, Lehtinen S, Rantanen J. WHO Website Platform for OH&S Capacity Development. Geneva: GPAWH 3.2 team; 28 April 2010.