The African Health OER Network: Advancing health education in Africa through open educational resources

The original journal article can be found at http://www.ajhpe.org.za/index.php/ajhpe/issue/view/3.This short commentary explains the value proposition of open educational resources for health education, the motivations behind the creation of the African Health OER Network, its services and its collection of learning materials.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94545/1/2010.12_oera-um-ajhpe_article-cc_by_nc.pd

Preliminary outcomes of a paediatric highly active antiretroviral therapy cohort from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Few studies address the use of paediatric highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Africa. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study to investigate preliminary outcomes of all children eligible for HAART at Sinikithemba HIV/AIDS clinic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Immunologic, virologic, clinical, mortality, primary caregiver, and psychosocial variables were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: From August 31, 2003 until October 31, 2005, 151 children initiated HAART. The median age at HAART initiation was 5.7 years (range 0.3–15.4). Median follow-up time of the cohort after HAART initiation was 8 months (IQR 3.5–13.5). The median change in CD4% from baseline (p < 0.001) was 10.2 (IQR 5.0–13.8) at 6 months (n = 90), and 16.2 (IQR 9.6–20.3) at 12 months (n = 59). Viral loads (VLs) were available for 100 children at 6 months of which 84% had HIV-1 RNA levels ≤ 50 copies/mL. At 12 months, 80.3% (n = 61) had undetectable VLs. Sixty-five out of 88 children (73.8%) reported a significant increase (p < 0.001) in weight after the first month. Eighty-nine percent of the cohort (n = 132) reported ≤ 2 missed doses during any given treatment month (> 95%adherence). Seventeen patients (11.3%) had a regimen change; two (1.3%) were due to antiretroviral toxicity. The Kaplan-Meier one year survival estimate was 90.9% (95%confidence interval (CI) 84.8–94.6). Thirteen children died during follow-up (8.6%), one changed service provider, and no children were lost to follow-up. All 13 deaths occurred in children with advanced HIV disease within 5 months of treatment initiation. In multivariate analysis of baseline variables against mortality using Cox proportional-hazards model, chronic gastroenteritis was associated with death [hazard ratio (HR), 12.34; 95%CI, 1.27–119.71) and an HIV-positive primary caregiver was found to be protective against mortality [HR, 0.12; 95%CI, 0.02–0.88). Age, orphanhood, baseline CD4%, and hemoglobin were not predicators of mortality in our cohort. Fifty-two percent of the cohort had at least one HIV-positive primary caregiver, and 38.4% had at least one primary caregiver also on HAART at Sinikithemba clinic. CONCLUSION: This report suggests that paediatric HAART can be effective despite the challenges of a resource-limited setting

ICT at African Universities

Many African nations and regional bodies are recognizing the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in promoting social and economic change, generating both significant opportunities and challenges for African universities. This article focuses on experiences in the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) to present a picture of what is taking place at African universities, providing examples of successes and failures and their wider implications for practitioners in the field of e-learning

Harnessing OER to Develop Teachers: The Guyana Experience

oai:ojs.ejl4d.org:article/2The Ministry of Education in Guyana has prioritised increasing the number of qualified teachers by providing opportunities to both pre- and in-service teachers to gain relevant qualifications. This paper describes the process used to redesign the teacher training curriculum in Guyana to achieve the goals of a newly-developed ICT Professional Development Strategy. The UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT) was central to the redesign process, and was used to review and reorganize the national teacher education curriculum aimed at pre-service teachers. The framework also influenced plans to provide professional development for in-service teachers, and influenced the selection of Open Education Resources (OER) used to develop a new learning environment and the accompanying learning materials for the teaching of ICT in Education. One of the significant lessons learned during this process is that people rather than technology are crucial to transformation. It is essential to have leadership support at the highest levels but also committed champions at all other levels. The process called for the inclusion of local stakeholders who understood and knew how to respond to contextual constraints. Moreover, the process benefited from the use of existing frameworks and the use of cost effective OER to develop the course materials

Harnessing OER to Drive Systemic Educational Change in Secondary Schooling

This paper reports on two action research projects which explored the challenge of determining the conditions under which use of OER can drive a transformative educational agenda in schooling systems. At St Peter’s College in Johannesburg, South Africa, a small pilot study was conducted to explore how to best to adopt new teaching and learning methodologies to encourage greater student engagement and responsibility, and to gauge student and staff reactions to a change in teaching and learning methodologies. It placed heavy emphasis on harnessing OER to enable student-led content creation, with a long-term view of demonstrating that students can use OER to create self-paced learning environments that significantly accelerate their journey through the formal curriculum. In Antigua and Barbuda, the research project considered how to facilitate an entire system to change. It recognised that for change to be effective, it needs to be driven at the systemic level, as these ultimately direct the operations of most public schooling systems. The paper explores the different steps taken, starting from the government’s commitment to ICT infrastructure, fostering a policy environment through an ICT in Education policy and an ICT Master Plan to guide procurement and deployment of ICT in schools, and the development of a School ICT integration plan to ensure school’s ICT needs and requirements. The research explored the deployment of an OER Virtual learning Environment (VLE) Prototype, and the compilation of an online mathematics ‘textbook’ from available quality free OER. The paper concludes by highlighting the kinds of systemic actions required for the proponents of OER to build sustained pressure for long-term, educationally effective systemic change

A Phase 2 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a Recombinant HIV Type 1 Vaccine Basedon Adeno-Associated Virus.

The study vaccine, tgAAC09, consisted of purified particles containing the single-stranded DNA from HIV-1 subtype C genes derived from the South African isolate DU422, encoding Gag-PR-DRT proteins, enclosed within a recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 2 (AAV2) protein capsid.6 The HIV gag-pro-DRT nucleic acid is a synthetic cDNA for HIV-1 gag-protease.The recombinant vaccine, tgAAC09, based on an adeno-associated virus serotype 2 (AAV2) vector encoding HIV-1 subtype C Gag, protease, and part of reverse transcriptase, induced robust T cell and antibody responses in nonhuman primates. In a previous phase I study in 80 healthy HIV-seronegative European and Indian adults, the vaccine was generally safe, well tolerated, and modestly immunogenic when administered once at doses up to 3x10 11 DRP. This phase II double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial tested two administrations and a higher dosage of tgAAC009. Ninety-one healthy HIV-seronegative adults from three African countries were given one of three dosage levels of tgAAC09 (3x1010, 3x10 11, or 3x10 12 DRP) intramuscularly, either at a 6- or 12-month interval; follow-up was 18 months. Overall, 65% and 57% of vaccine recipients experienced local and systemic signs and symptoms, respectively, most being mild. Frequency and severity were not dose related and were similar to those in placebo recipients. No vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported. Overall, HIV-specific T cell responses were detected by IFN-g ELISPOT in 17/69 (25%) vaccine recipients with 38% (10/26) responders in the highest dosage group. The response rate improved significantly with boosting at 6, but not 12 months, in the 3x10 11 and 3x10 12 dosage groups only. Neutralizing antibody titers to the AAV2 did not alter the frequency of immune responses to HIV. Two doses of tgAAC09 were well tolerated at the dosage levels given. Fewer than half the recipients of the highest vaccine dosage, 3x10 12 DRP, had T cell responses to HIV

A phase 2 study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant HIV type 1 vaccine based on adeno-associated virus

The recombinant vaccine, tgAAC09, based on an adeno-associated virus serotype 2 (AAV2) vector encoding HIV-1 subtype C Gag, protease, and part of reverse transcriptase, induced robust T cell and antibody responses in nonhuman primates. In a previous phase I study in 80 healthy HIV-seronegative European and Indian adults, the vaccine was generally safe, well tolerated, and modestly immunogenic when administered once at doses up to 3 1011 DRP. This phase II double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial tested two administrations and a higher dosage of tgAAC009. Ninety-one healthy HIV-seronegative adults from three African countries were given one of three dosage levels of tgAAC09 (3 1010, 3 1011, or 3 1012 DRP) intramuscularly, either at a 6- or 12-month interval; follow-up was 18 months. Overall, 65% and 57% of vaccine recipients experienced local and systemic signs and symptoms, respectively, most being mild. Frequency and severity were not dose related and were similar to those in placebo recipients. No vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported. Overall, HIV-specific T cell responses were detected by IFN-g ELISPOT in 17/69 (25%) vaccine recipients with 38% (10/26) responders in the highest dosage group. The response rate improved significantly with boosting at 6, but not 12 months, in the 3 1011 and 3 1012 dosage groups only. Neutralizing antibody titers to the AAV2 did not alter the frequency of immune responses to HIV. Two doses of tgAAC09 were well tolerated at the dosage levels given. Fewer than half the recipients of the highest vaccine dosage, 3 1012 DRP, had T cell responses to HIV