Education in Network:  much more than Distance Education.  Experience of the Cuban Medical Universities
    

The Virtual University of Health (www.uvirtual.sld.cu) constitutes one of the strategic projects of the Cuban Network known as Infomed.  It is supported on free software and links standardized e-learning tools with other open sources for co-operative work, syndication and decentralized educational management.  The Cuban experience of sharing the formative processes and the information sources that are developed in the assistance services as such and in academic and scientific health institutions is presented.  This learning model in network (LMN) stems from a teaching-technological conception that favours the integration of educational activities, either face-to-face or not, and health practice. The different contents, services and tools have an organization opened for learning, in which interaction and independence are characteristics of the Education in Network processes.

 

Key words: virtual university of health, education in network, open learning environment, Infomed, Cuba.

 

 

* President, Junta de Gobierno, Virtual University of Health, Cuba

 

 

Introduction

 

Today it is not longer possible to think about quality and relevancy in education, without intensive and efficient use of the information and communication technologies (ICT). It may seem controversial but this is not a technological challenge but rather a paradigmatic change of the educational process within a society where the new space-time relations are changing human communication.

 

The development of Internet and of very efficient tools for communication and interaction make it possible the collaborative learning in network and increasingly serve as support to the face-to-face educational processes. It is about a new formative dimension that is changing the traditional educational means into tools for learning as well as the dynamics and communication of the process.

 

A decisive aspect in this necessary change of education is that the education-learning processes are centred in the active learning of the students and the professor assumes his/her new role of facilitator. This entails educational strategies that include the new space-time contexts, the role of the education-oriented ICT and particularly, the specific teaching-technological model required for every case.

 

It is in this context that the term e-learning emerges as something that can not be ignored under the present conditions of technological development and that is occasionally used like the synonym of distance education.  In fact, e-learning is a set of methods, technologies, applications and services directed to facilitate learning through Internet.

 

A plain translation of the term e-learning makes its meaning more confused, since learning is a human rather than an electronic process.  Neither is it a synonym of digitalization of contents, multimedia use, connectivity, nor access to Internet, even when  it covers them.

 

E-learning is accepted as the application of Internet technologies to education, and specifically to LMS (learning management systems), commonly called learning platforms on Internet.  Many people prefer the term net-learning to refer to learning in network supported on these platforms.

 

Regardless of any denomination, the important thing is to accept the challenge of intensively using these tools in education "without a distance". In this regard, the standardization and syndication of learning objects become important actions for access, exchange and customization in the learning processes.

 

Education for all and during the whole life is a concept directly related to a relevant education that demands a true universalization and the full access by all, without geographic, economic or other kind of limitation whatsoever. It constitutes one of the greater challenges to maintain and to raise the quality of a teaching-educational process that should respond to the needs of the society.

 

In the present “Information Society” , it is not possible to reach these strategic targets without incorporating “networked work” and new educational paradigms.

 

Internet can only be used as a space of dissemination of traditional documents of a professor, or as a new educational setting.  In this case, the objective is to create an open space, where, regardless of the educational modality and existing or non-existing time match in the process, the active learning in a customized and decentralized form is encouraged.

 

At present, it is not possible to leave out the tools that networks offer for the development of educational processes in an open learning environment, a more accurate denomination than virtual teaching learning environment, since this is an open space that includes face-to-face, semi face-to-face and virtual modalities.

 

A learning process in an open environment basically requires complex enriched didactic activities (learning experiences) that cover information (contents), communication and evaluation, through tools and resources facilitating the co-operative work. The development of abilities by tackling problems found in real environments and of interactions that are generated in the network.

 

The most important thing is to share in network the formative processes and the information sources that are developed in the assistance services and in scientific and academic health institutions.  In local problem-solving process, new pieces of knowledge are generated and shared in a virtual environment, which potentiates the learning based on the real working spaces.

 

The learning model in network (LMN), that is constructed in the Cuban Virtual University of Health, stems from a teaching-technological conception that favours the integration of the educational activities, either face-to-face or not,  with the health practice. Its different resources and services have an organization opened for learning in which interaction and independence are characteristics of education in network processes.(4)

 

 

The Cuban Virtual University of Health in Network Infomed

 

In the 90`s, a telematic network was created and developed in Cuba from the Schools of Medical Sciences, in order to facilitate access to  information and  knowledge throughout the National Healthcare System. The different institutions and the medical assistance, education and research staff in the country increasingly joined this network called Infomed (www.sld.cu), with high priority in primary health care level.

 

In this context, the National Healthcare System in Cuba gave high priority to the alliance with the education and communication sectors; and the main challenges in this respect were:

 

- acquisition and introduction of the new ICT

- training of human resources for the efficient use and application of the ICTs in the field of health care

- access and connectivity to Infomed by all the health care institutions

- the most important and difficult challenge : to turn the network into a true space of interaction and development of new pieces of knowledge and values.

 

It is common that when talking about access to information sources, people only refer to the resources to get access to technologies, but in fact, trained human resources as well as policies and strategies are also required for an efficient and effective management to respond to the existing priorities and needs.

 

Those institutions in charge of assistance, medical education, sanitary control, research and health information are part of the national health care system in Cuba and of the telematic network Infomed.

 

The Virtual University of Health (VUH) (www.uvs.sld.cu) and the Virtual Library of Health (VLH)) (www.bvs.sld.cu) are strategic projects of the healthcare network and their objectives are to encourage and strengthen continued education, research, and technological innovation in this sector, on the basis of the promotion of:

 

•  communication between professors, scientists and other specialists

• systematic and organized exchange of information and formation resources

• creation of high added value services for medical assistance, teaching and research in the healthcare field.

 

The VLH of Cuba is part of the "Regional Project of the Virtual Libraries of Health in the Americas” and includes, among others, the access to journals, books, electronic publications and to a daily summary of international news in the field of healthcare.

 

The VUH of Cuba comprises the educational activities in the network of the Cuban medical universities and it has more than 500 professors and different departments in all provinces.
 
The educational strategy of the Virtual University of Health

VUH is visualized as a virtual campus for net-learning that is sustained in the real processes in health. 

It starts from a work-in-network approach and an open learning environment, with three dimensions: pedagogic, technological and managerial that substantiates the strategies and procedures of the education-learning processes.

The objective of theVUH, since its inception in 1997, has been the construction of an open space for the development of formative processes in undergraduate and graduate levels, which goes from self-formation to co-operative work at different levels of integration and use of Internet.  It is not limited to educational activities on line.

According to Cuban experience, the creation of interactive spaces by means of information, discussion, consultation and qualification services stands out because of its strategic nature. For this end,  the Virtual University of Health has the virtual classroom and the virtual clinic of health, the virtual library, the Virtual Convention Center and the scientific networks, among other services available in the health network.

The virtual classroom in the VUH is conceived as the interaction space for formal or informal activities that accomplish a formative objective and in which the didactic communication rather than the contents characterizes this process.  Although different virtual environments are presently used, according to the levels reached by the different medical schools nationwide, we are working in the selection of a common informatics application that will serve as a tool to improve the formative processes of the Cuban medical colleges. 

On the other hand, the virtual clinic offers 4 services with educational purposes:  diagnostic discussions, questions to experts, tele-consultation and clinical updating subjects.   They provide health professionals and students with the possibility of sharing and interacting about clinical cases and professional experiences of academic interest, directly related  to formative processes or not.

In this way, the learning in network in the VUH includes not only courses but other activities in health care practice such as case study, a second diagnostic opinion; research projects, etcetera, which allows sharing and interacting in an open learning space.

In this open learning space, the professors and students can accede and publish documents and didactic materials of face- to-face formative processes, and can also design and develop on-line semi face-to-face and virtual courses.  This means that Internet becomes a radically new educational setting.

The learning model in network (LMN) of the UVS reflects the paradigmatic changes that occur at present in the education, with priority to the curriculum as a permanent aspect for the whole life, where the important thing is not the contents to be passed but the competencies to be acquired.  On the other hand, the evaluation becomes a decisive element in the feedback during the teaching/learning process and ceases to be a punishment or qualifying factor.

The LMN raises a pedagogic dimension in which the top priority is given to the didactic communication, interaction and co-operative work, with emphasis on providing tools for the students to learn rather than educational aids for the professors.  Likewise, it promotes a problem-oriented approach in the educational process, with flexible customized access contents.

The technological support in the Virtual University of Health

The VUH uses free software and comprises standardized e-learning tools with others of open sources for the co-operative work, the syndication and the decentralized educational management. Its technological support has four main

- health network Infomed

- platform for the university management

- educational platform (e-learning)

- standardized tools of syndication and reference.

Infomed as telematic network of the Cuban national healthcare system has nodes in all the provinces and it interconnects an increasing number of health professionals and institutions throughout the country . It allows rendering specialized information services, e-mail, FTP, among others, and giving  access to resources and services inherent to the UVS.

The platform of the UVS guarantees the educational management activities and other services that are offered to students and professors.

After some years of developing the courses by electronic mail and to in a lesser extent by Web, since 2002, the courses through the Cuban e-learning platform ¨SEPAD¨ began.  Since 2005, the platform ¨MOODLE¨ was added, with positive initial results, given its didactic functionalities, flexible design and simpler user interface with more options

Recently, Plone was introduced as content management platform and also  Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to syndicate and reference  respectively the educational resources in theVLH, according to IEEE-LOM standards.

The RSS, with a great future impact in education, allows the students to receive information and accede to learning objects in a customized form, and at the same time, they can define their learning dynamics.  Simultaneously they can accede and share the new resources from its own Web page or computer desktop without any delay. 

Final Considerations

Given the development reached by the Cuban healthcare and medical education, virtual university of health has four great priorities:

-  quality and relevancy of the formative processes in network

-  training of managers and professors in the use of ICT.

-  provision of the required didactic characteristics in the traditional learning units to be incorporated to the new net- working environment.

-  standardization and syndication of learning objects and units to be reused and customized. 

Beyond doubt, sharing and interacting in network is the key. To this end, it is necessary to update, syndicate and manage the educational resources in a permanent, dynamic, appropriate, adaptable, customized and decentralized form.

The Universities of the 21st century must meet the present challenges of the information society in order to make the necessary changes in the higher education.

A high level of institutional and professional commitment is essential to work in an open learning environment, based on real work spaces, in response to the problems and needs of the society. 

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