Online Dagu 2 and DHIS2 Courses Go Live
June 9th, 2021 | news
Our Digital Health Activity in Ethiopia has been working with the Ministry of Health (MOH), federal technical and vocational education and training (FTVET), and Health Science Colleges (HSCs) to develop and implement sustainable capacity building mechanisms using an online platform and training academia. MOH in collaboration with eHIS stakeholders has been providing different in-service trainings (IST) (including on Dagu 2 and DHIS2) to staff at health centers and hospitals, and pre-service training (PST) to prospective health information technicians (HIT), pharmacy technicians, and other last-mile providers at universities and HSCs. However, establishing a robust HIS requires viable organizational and individual skills, capacity building, and providing training in these conventional ways (PST and IST) did not meet the demand for HIS-trained workers at service delivery points. DHA, in collaboration with MOH and other stakeholders, is developing an online Dagu 2 and DHIS2 training course to broaden access to training and increase the number of personnel trained in the two systems.
The online training courses, which can be widely accessed on either a personal computer or a smartphone, facilitate remote and self-paced training for health care workers to support the implementation of DHIS 2 and Dagu 2.
Moreover, this initiative supports one of the workforce development agendas put forth by the MOH; creating a system for continuing professional development (CPD). CPD guideline calls for health professionals to take certain courses that will be applied toward their registration license renewal. These courses, when approved, will be some of those required by the MOH for HIS personnel to receive CPD credit.
The online trainings will support the efforts of the MOH, TVET, HSCs, and DHA to sustain capacity-building work by blending the Dagu 2 and DHIS2 courses into the training curricula taken by future health information and pharmacy technicians, and other last-mile health personnel. When launched, the courses will be used as part of the Teaching Training and Learning Module (TTLM) by both instructors and students of the HIT courses in HSCs. In addition to creating greater access, the courses will reduce Dagu 2 and DHIS 2 training costs both in terms of time and money.
The Dagu 2 and DHIS2 eLearning modules are housed on the Moodle learning management system (LMS) to increase availability and encourage the use of the courses. The plan is to move these modules to the HSC’s local server and MOH’s cloud server for the pre-service and in-service training respectively. For pre-service training, one HSC will be selected to serve as the Digital Learning Hub; the others will use the LMS at the Digital Learning Hub or host their own courses. For in-service training, the MOH will host the Moodle LMS on its website to offer courses for in-service use throughout the country. Offline versions of the modules have also been prepared for colleges and learners who lack an optimal internet connection.
The first five-day training-of-trainers on blended learning was provided to 18 instructors from nine HSCs to strategize and operationalize the use of the modules from March 22–26, 2021, at the Digital Health Innovation Lab and Learning Center, St Peter Hospital. During the training, ways of using the eLearning modules for pre-and in-service training were discussed, and detailed operational activities designed.
Written by Woinshet Nigatu
