Is Blended Learning Suitable for Continuous Professional Development (CDP)? A Case of Health Manpower Development Center (HMDC), Ministry of Health, Uganda

Abstract

In 2012, the Ministry of Health, Uganda in partnership with Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC) under the Institutional Capacity Building project (ICB), introduced the eLearning mode of delivery at Health Manpower Development Center (HMDC) an in-service center for continuous Professional Development in the country. This was aimed at increasing access to Training programs with minimal interference of health service delivery. In order to make decisions on adaptability of blended learning mode in training health workers in the rural setting and securing further funding from the BTC, an evaluation was carried out to ascertain the effectiveness and impact of blended learning in the two sub regions of Ruwenzori and West Nile in Uganda. A total of thirty (30) respondents in the two regions were reached through questionnaires and interview guides. The results of the evaluation study indicated beyond reasonable doubt, that blended learning enabled learning/ teaching at HMDC, if attention is paid to the actual pedagogy of the system rather the medium of delivery. Consequently, this study recommends that the Ministry of Health ought to re-focus on the establishment of better equipped resources centers and ICT infrastructure so as to adopt blended learning mode of delivery for training of health workers in the rural setting. The Interactivity levels of instructional materials, learner support and Monitoring and evaluation systems could well be strengthened at HMDC. // Paper ID 291