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Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

BACKGROUND: The use of mobile technology has been reported to help improve access to education for people in remote areas. However, there is limited evidence of its adoption in resource-limited settings. The aim of this study was to utilize stakeholder generated ideas to design and pilot a mobile le...

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Autores principales: Chamane, Nkosinothando, Thompson, Rowan, Goldstone, Simon, Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani Phosa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9580687/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36304058
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frph.2021.728309
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author Chamane, Nkosinothando
Thompson, Rowan
Goldstone, Simon
Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani Phosa
author_facet Chamane, Nkosinothando
Thompson, Rowan
Goldstone, Simon
Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani Phosa
author_sort Chamane, Nkosinothando
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The use of mobile technology has been reported to help improve access to education for people in remote areas. However, there is limited evidence of its adoption in resource-limited settings. The aim of this study was to utilize stakeholder generated ideas to design and pilot a mobile learning curriculum, with the purpose of facilitating training to improve the quality of point-of-care diagnostics services in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rural clinics. METHODS: Nominal Group Technique was employed to enable collaboration with stakeholders in designing and piloting of a POC diagnostics curriculum. Stakeholders were selected from 11 KZN districts to participate in a clinic-based piloting of the curriculum using an online application. The application was designed in collaboration with a teacher training institute in Durban. Moodle was used as an established reliable online learning management system. During piloting, quantitative and qualitative data were generated and analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION: Guided by the Nominal Group Technique results, five delivery modes for curriculum content through Mobile Learning were generated. An interactive course page was created on the Moodle site, titled: Quality HIV Point of Care Diagnostics Curriculum Delivery for Nurses in Rural Areas. The course content consisted of three teaching units, activities, an online quiz and an online survey. An analytic-algorithm built into the online course enabled monitoring of participation and assessment outcomes automatically. At piloting, 64% of the invited representative clinics were able to access the course, with 47% meeting the course completion requirements. All the participants achieved the set pass mark of 75% with an average of 87%. The activity completion report showed that topics presented through images, videos and simple text were accessed more than those presented as attachments of national documents. Despite poor network coverage and limited access to mobile technology, exacerbated by Covid-19 related restrictions, Point of care diagnostics Mobile Learning curriculum was well-received in participating rural clinics. Recommendations relating to course improvement and access, included extending collaboration with specialists in eHealth systems development and with South African cell phone network providers.
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spelling pubmed-95806872022-10-26 Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Chamane, Nkosinothando Thompson, Rowan Goldstone, Simon Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani Phosa Front Reprod Health Reproductive Health BACKGROUND: The use of mobile technology has been reported to help improve access to education for people in remote areas. However, there is limited evidence of its adoption in resource-limited settings. The aim of this study was to utilize stakeholder generated ideas to design and pilot a mobile learning curriculum, with the purpose of facilitating training to improve the quality of point-of-care diagnostics services in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rural clinics. METHODS: Nominal Group Technique was employed to enable collaboration with stakeholders in designing and piloting of a POC diagnostics curriculum. Stakeholders were selected from 11 KZN districts to participate in a clinic-based piloting of the curriculum using an online application. The application was designed in collaboration with a teacher training institute in Durban. Moodle was used as an established reliable online learning management system. During piloting, quantitative and qualitative data were generated and analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION: Guided by the Nominal Group Technique results, five delivery modes for curriculum content through Mobile Learning were generated. An interactive course page was created on the Moodle site, titled: Quality HIV Point of Care Diagnostics Curriculum Delivery for Nurses in Rural Areas. The course content consisted of three teaching units, activities, an online quiz and an online survey. An analytic-algorithm built into the online course enabled monitoring of participation and assessment outcomes automatically. At piloting, 64% of the invited representative clinics were able to access the course, with 47% meeting the course completion requirements. All the participants achieved the set pass mark of 75% with an average of 87%. The activity completion report showed that topics presented through images, videos and simple text were accessed more than those presented as attachments of national documents. Despite poor network coverage and limited access to mobile technology, exacerbated by Covid-19 related restrictions, Point of care diagnostics Mobile Learning curriculum was well-received in participating rural clinics. Recommendations relating to course improvement and access, included extending collaboration with specialists in eHealth systems development and with South African cell phone network providers. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9580687/ /pubmed/36304058 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frph.2021.728309 Text en Copyright © 2022 Chamane, Thompson, Goldstone and Mashamba-Thompson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Reproductive Health
Chamane, Nkosinothando
Thompson, Rowan
Goldstone, Simon
Mashamba-Thompson, Tivani Phosa
Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title_full Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title_fullStr Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title_short Designing and Piloting of a Mobile Learning Curriculum for Quality Point-Of-Care Diagnostics Services in Rural Clinics of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
title_sort designing and piloting of a mobile learning curriculum for quality point-of-care diagnostics services in rural clinics of kwazulu-natal, south africa
topic Reproductive Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9580687/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36304058
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frph.2021.728309
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