OPEN EDUCATION FOR EYE HEALTH

Supporting public health training for eye care across the Commonwealth through Open Education


THE CHALLENGE
Open Education in Eye Health (OEEH) was established in response to the growing global need to embed a public health approach to effectively address avoidable blindness and the health training inequalities which exist. Training programmes in eye health, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMIC), are constrained by limited faculty and resources. In addition, public health for eye care is essential for practice within health systems but often is not covered within clinical ophthalmic training curriculums. The pace of change in medical knowledge requires the development of professional life-long learning approaches and resources.

THE SOLUTION
OEEH contributes to addressing this glaring global gap using digital technology and collaborations with global networks of eye health educators and experts. Our Open online courses aim to break the “iron triangle” of access, quality and cost of education by providing free and flexible access to high quality public health for eye care training opportunities at scale and at the point of need.

ACHIEVEMENTS
So far, 5 courses in key subject areas have reached over 22,505 participants, from 188 countries and territories around the world with two-thirds from LMICs. Open registration enables individuals and eye health teams to learn together and with colleagues from different settings. Over 300 Openly licensed educational resources, created with 110 collaborators from 25 countries, are available to download, reuse, share and adapt for local training needs. OEEH partners with eye health training institutions and educators to promote the quality, equity and sustainability of the training at the local level.

Overall, the OEEH approach to online learning is enabling large numbers of eye health workers, educators and managers around the world to take a purposeful and self-directed approach to updating their own knowledge and delivering relevant professional development to eye health teams in their settings.

Sign up for an Open online course

Join more than 23,000 people from 188 countries and territories who have enrolled in our Open online courses.

FutureLearn courses

Learn together with eye health professionals from different cadres, countries and contexts on our FutureLearn courses. Learn also from the lead educator and course facilitators – eye care experts from around the world who share their expertise and experiences in the comments and discussions.

Diabetic Eye Disease: Building Capacity To Prevent Blindness

Understand the diabetes challenge and how health professionals can work with people with diabetes to prevent blindness. Learn the key facts about diabetic eye disease and its management, and how health teams and people with diabetes can work together to reduce the risk of vision loss and blindness.

Global Blindness: Planning and Managing Eye Care Services

Understand global blindness and how to plan effective eye care.Learn about the WHO definitions of visual acuity, the burden of visual impairment, the Global Action Plan and explore the key management strategies for cataract and refractive error services. Discover how principles of planning can be applied to address local eye care needs.

Content on this course is also provided in Spanish and Portuguese. A separate French course also runs at the same time: La Cécité dans le Monde: Planifier et Gérer les Services de Soins Oculaires. 

Eliminating Trachoma

Discover how communities and experts are joining together to end trachoma disease across 42 endemic countries by the year 2020. This course is aimed at the personnel implementing and managing trachoma programmes at a district and community level. It provides insights from stakeholders, experts and professionals as they share their experiences of their successes and challenges of eliminating blinding trachoma.

NEW MOOC for 2020: Retinopathy of Prematurity: Practical Approaches to Prevent Blindness

Explore the strategies to prevent and treat retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) with this online course for healthcare professionals. On this course, you will learn how a practical team approach towards neonatal care and ROP screening, treatment and follow-up can help prevent blindness in preterm babies. You will also look at how the risk of ROP and the level of neonatal care can differ between higher and lower income regions of the world.

Open Study at LSHTM courses

Study our two ophthalmic epidemiology courses at a time and pace that suits you.

Ophthalmic Epidemiology 1. Basic Principles

Learn the key features and examine the uses of the main epidemiology study types for eye care. Understand the key concepts of prevalence and incidence, explore the causes and distribution of visual impairment in populations, learn about key epidemiological study designs and assess their strengths and limitations for studying eye disease.

Ophthalmic Epidemiology 2. Application to Eye Disease

Learn the key features, and examine the uses, of epidemiology for eye care. Critically analyse the different features of the main epidemiological study designs and discover how they are used to address different research questions in eye health.

Note that Global Blindness is also available for self-study on Open Study at LSHTM – enrol now. 

Glaucoma MOOC coming soon…

Enrolments on our FutureLearn courses by country March 2016 – August 2019

Where OEEH Open course participants are based. © LSHTM

Find out more and register for one of our OEEH courses on the LSHTM website at  http://iceh.lshtm.ac.uk/oer/

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