Spotlight
Global Environmental and Occupational e-Library of Training Materials
The development of human resources, and especially e-learning resources,
is a priority of the WHO Global Strategy on Occupational Health for
All and the CDC regional environmental health centers. The purpose
of this project is to construct an entirely public domain E-library/portal
of environmental and occupational health and safety training materials,
with the following specific aims:
- Provide training information
on diseases of occupation and the environment.
- Provide explanations
of hazards and diseases as they pertain to individual
economic sectors.
- Provide in depth training on environmental health issues and environmental
practice.
- Provide public health teaching materials as they
pertain to each topic. This may include prevention, safety, advocacy,
legal and ethical issues, roles of government, etc.
- Provide
additional emphasis on the concept of control strategies
and environmental management. This will be particularly helpful for small business
leaders and developing nations.
The organization of the website is based on the concept of branches
of a tree representing links. Each of the terminal branches will
contain leaves, representing the information entries. These entries
will be added directly by authorized participants so that they fall
into the appropriate link. These authorized participants will
include the UIC administrator, the WHO international collaborating
centers, selected CDC regional environmental health collaborating centers,
and others, creating a global perspective that will benefit all users. These
participants will submit entries that are particularly valuable to
them and to their region. The format of their entries may be
web-casts, slide shows, teaching modules, etc. The entries may
either be original contributions or direct links to a particular resource. Entries
must be in the form of training material, i.e., resources for health
care professionals, public health workers, students, and teachers to
learn and disseminate information in the field. In general, if
learning objectives could easily be crafted for a particular source,
then that source qualifies as training material. This method
of institutional collaboration will ensure diverse content. Furthermore,
this collaboration will likely accelerate the recognition and acceptance
of the website as a viable source, both regionally and globally.
Individuals populating the website on behalf of their institution
will fill out a short, web-based template that will systematically
describe their contribution. The template includes a title, format,
year, author, languages, a brief summary, and pull-down menus for subject
and categories. This “library card” system will ensure
proper placement of the entry, establish easier browsing of the entries
by users, and allow for a highly efficient “search” function
for users.
The website is designed to be user friendly. There is a primary
homepage with links to separate environmental and occupational homepages. The
homepage, all link titles, and other common elements will be available
in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. Other
features of the website will include a site index, user feedback capabilities,
and traffic tracking software that provides data on the country of
origin of visitors and on the volume of visits.
With the technical support of the Centers for Advanced Distance Education
(CADE) at UIC, the website
is currently available at: GEOLibrary
|
