Peoples Open Access Education Initiative

Aim
The aim of the Peoples Open Access Education Initiative is to work collaboratively on the development of free content in the public health area.

This is the page node used for the community to plan the project and content modules are linked from the Peoples Open Access Education Content node.

Dick Heller Emeritus Professor Universities of Manchester, UK and Newcastle, Australia is coordinating the initiative.

Background
Most low to middle income countries (LMIC) currently have to cope with a wide range of health problems that interfere with their future economic development. Public health is a major priority, especially the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and common infectious diseases, as well as the emergence of chronic disease epidemics. A trained workforce of health professionals is essential, but local universities being vastly oversubscribed for face to face courses and fees for overseas universities, including e-learning distance programmes, are higher than can be afforded by most potential students in these countries. Internet-based e-learning has the exciting potential to deliver high quality learning resources anytime and anywhere, and although access is by no means universal it is improving quickly.

Methods
Harness the ever expanding range of high quality on line resources - Open Educational Resources (OER) - that are freely available through the Internet

Work with individuals and local Universities to offer high quality education, using cutting edge learning technology

Start with Masters level education

Move towards the establishment of a ‘Peoples Open Access University’

Who might be involved:

•	Universities in low- to middle-income countries who want to extend their range of material and students

•	Individuals who are potential students

•	Health professionals originating elsewhere and now working in ‘developed’ countries

•	Volunteers 	- academics/public health professionals - ICT and learning technology specialists

•	Organisations who want to offer support/encouragement

Next steps
Join in. It is truly open to anyone who wishes. We are at a very early stage, and all involved will help shape the initiative. The web site Peoples-uni.org invites interested people to join in the development of this initiative.

Develop content. Peoples Open Access Education Content node is where we are developing the content.