The exchange of information and knowledge for the purposes of developing human capital is a noble cause. IMHO has two stand-out partners on the ground in Sri Lanka who are making such valuable investments in medical education and the sciences. Dr. Surenthirakumaran has been affiliated with Moolai Hospital in Northern Sri Lanka for many years and has been involved in a number of efforts and causes to strengthen civil society in Sri Lanka, especially as it relates to health/medical education and human development. Recently he also helped found the Association for Higher Education and Development (AHEAD) Trust and plays an important role in the publishing of the Jaffna Medical Association's recurring newsletter. We recently posted their latest newsletter on our website HERE, though you can visit their website directly for more information.
Another recent effort to promote the advancement of society through the sciences was made by Dr. Arulnithy at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital Cardiology Unit. He just launched Science Navigators, a website committed to the sharing of information related to the sciences, including climate, energy, astronomy, environment, technology, and health. This project is similarly geared towards promoting knowledge sharing and peer exchange for the purposes of strengthening civil society and building human capital. The Science Navigators website is definitely worth checking out.
We congratulate both of these men and their respective organizations/networks for furthering the important cause of health & science education in Sri Lanka. In addition to these two excellent resources, there are many wonderful online resources that make educational materials free to users all over the world. It is worth checking out the following:
1. NextGenU.org Overview: Starting with a focus in the health sciences, NextGenerationYou partners with leading universities, professional societies, and government organizations like the U.S. CDC, World Bank, and World Health Organization. NextGenU.org’s accredited partners give learners credit for this training (or institutions can adopt them and use them with their students), all (for the first time ever) for free (and without advertisements). All our courses are competency-based, and include a global peer community of practice, and local skills-oriented mentorships. Founded in 2001, we launched our first full course (Emergency Medicine) in March 2012: initial data show that NextGenU’s training performs comparably to traditional American medical schooling. Please come learn more about us or have a look at our available courses. 2. WorldPossible.org (RACHEL server) Overview: World Possible is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading access to educational resources in communities lacking Internet. At World Possible, we believe access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. Through World Possible’s RACHEL server, we are providing communities offline copies of the finest open source education materials available. This enables communities with access to computers, but no access to internet, an avenue by which they can have a library of educational and reference materials in a pseudo-internet experience. Inspired by the motivation and dedication of the people of Ethiopia who responded with “Possible! Possible!” to questions of education and technology, World Possible was created. The vision is to make a literate and poverty free “world possible” through the means of Education, Technology and Community Service. 3. University of Pittsburgh SuperCourse Overview: Supercourse is a repository of lectures on global health and prevention designed to improve the teaching of prevention. Supercourse has a network of over 56000 scientists in 174 countries who are sharing for free a library of 5264 lectures in 31 languages. The Supercourse has been produced at the WHO Collaborating Center University of Pittsburgh. We were originally funded three times by NASA, and by the National Library of Medicine. We have built a “Library of Lectures” with passionate scientific lectures from across the world. We have developed a technology for inexpensive, sustainable global training. More information on our program. We have published over 157 papers in leading medical journals including Nature, Lancet, British Medical Journal, Military Medicine, Nature Medicine, and PNAS among others. Our web pages have been identified as in the top 100 by PC Magazine, and one of the top 11 content pages by the Lancet. We receive 75 million hits a year.
4. World Endoscopy Organization Overview: The WEO website provides endoscopists around the world with a comprehensive listing of key endoscopy events, essential information and useful resources. This section is dedicated to highlighting unique services which WEO provides to its membership. Some of these projects are in planning and will be finalising during this current term of office. We encourage you to check this site regularly for new developments. 5. American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Overview: The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), formerly the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, is a professional association of medical doctors specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in the United States. It has a membership of over 55,000 and represents 90 percent of U.S. board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists. 6. Medical Aid Films (MAF) Overview: MAF aims to save the lives of vulnerable women and children in developing countries by providing innovative training and education through film. MAF provides film modules in: 1. Cervical cancer; 2. Basic Obstetric Ultrasound; 3. Understanding Your Body; 4. Nutrition; 5. Obstetric & Neonatal Emergencies; 6. Safe Delivery & Healthy Newborn Care; 7. Child Delivery; 8. Reproduction & Pregnancy; 9. Breastfeeding; 10. Post Partem Hemorrhage; and more.
7. USAID Global Health e-Learning Overview: The Global Health eLearning Center developed by the USAID Bureau of Global Health is a response to repeated requests from field staff for access to technical public health information. We have heard from USAID Population, Health, and Nutrition officers (PHNs) and from Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs) that they want to be current on global health topics, yet find it a challenge to obtain the information because of logistical and time constraints. The Global Health eLearning Center provides Internet-based courses that: 1) Provide useful and timely continuing education for health professionals; 2) Offer state-of-the-art technical content on key public health topics; and 3) Serve as a practical resource for increasing public health knowledge.
8. Blackboard Overview: From our beginning as a small education technology company, Blackboard has been dedicated to improving every aspect of the education experience for millions of learners and educators around the world. We work with thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations, providing them with tomorrow’s education experience today. BlackBoard provides free software (for creation of up to 5 courses) and a paying version for online course development.
9. Hesperian Publications Overview: Hesperian Health Guides are easy to use, medically accurate, and richly illustrated. We publish 20 titles, spanning women’s health, children, disabilities, dentistry, health education, HIV, and environmental health, and distribute many others. Buy, download, or read from this page, or view resources by language to explore materials in Spanish and over 80 other languages. 10. MIT OpenCourseWare Overview: MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials, including lecture notes, videos, exams, and more, that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
11. OpenStudy Overview: OpenStudy is a social learning network where students ask questions, give help, and connect with other students studying the same things. Our mission is to make the world one large study group, regardless of school, location, or background.