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How to Use Courses

Using Courses in a Blended Learning Approach

Blended learning, the combination of a variety of learning media (face-to-face, online, print, social media) and learning environments (instructor-led, peer-to-peer interaction, self-study and individual work), enables more opportunities for application and support to learners than the eLearning courses alone. 

In order to use the GHeL courses as part of a blended learning approach, it is important to determine the learning needs of the target audience. For instance:

  • If a particular audience needs to learn basic facts or concepts, self-directed learning can be quite effective.
  • If a particular audience needs to apply what they have learned, face-to-face interventions can be very effective.
  • If a particular audience needs to further develop mastery, post-instruction and mentoring sessions to reflect on application challenges in the workplace could occur via online discussion forum and communities of practice.

GHeL courses can be easily combined with other types of learning:

  • A pre-requisite to in-person trainings. This can help ensure that attendees have all achieved a certain level of knowledge about a subject before participating in a face-to-face training.
  • Targeted aspects of in-person trainings. Activities to test and reinforce concepts presented at in-person trainings can be designed as mini-eLearning tutorials. This can give learners a break from the rigors of in-person training and also “test” individual learning as much learning and feedback is group generated during a group face-to-face training.
  • A follow-up to in-person trainings. Recently trained staff can take an eLearning course to demonstrate how much their knowledge and comprehension of the topic has improved since the in-person training. By incorporating virtual chats and facilitated discussions into a course, learners can ask questions and receive answers (from peers and/or technical experts) and discuss challenges and successes. A post-training course can also serve as a mechanism for subject matter experts to serve as mentors and coaches to learners for a defined period of time after in-person training.

For more on how to integrate the GHeL courses into your organizational training efforts, see the K4Health Blended Learning Guide (French | Portuguese | Spanish | Swahili) and the Follow-Up Questions (French | Portuguese | Spanish | Swahili). To discuss this further, please contact lbasall1@jhu.edu.

Downloading Courses

Our new GHeL platform is interoperable and allows course content to be more widely accessed and shared. Courses can be downloaded in ePub, Mobi, PDF and print versions. This capability ensures the reusability, durability, and accessibility of the course content remains flexible.

To access the different versions of courses, start by going to the course guide page of the course you are interested in. On the right hand you will see “Offline Reading” versions listed. Click on the format that suits your needs best.

  • Print – use this option to get the full text of a course, and/or to print the course.
  • PDF – use this option to get a PDF copy of the course.
  • ePub – use this option to get a copy of the course you can use in eBook readers (except for Kindle). If you are using an iPhone or an iPad, ePub is the best option for you, and will open in iBooks. View tutorial
  • mobi – use this format to get a copy of the course you can use in a Kindle ereader, or in a Kindle app.

Quizzes are not currently part of offline reading, but will be shortly so please check back if this is a feature you are in need of.

Note: Courses are scheduled for revisions every two years. The authoritative content is always the content on the website. New Courses and revised courses are announced to all users.

Adapting Course Content

Course content is licensed under the terms described in the privacy policy on this site; learners always have the ability to adapt the course content to make it more relevant to their local context. We cannot host these courses on the GHeL Center, but we would be interested in partnering with you to use and repurpose the content. To discuss this further, please contact lbasall1@jhu.edu.

For support in your adaptation efforts, we have developed Making Content Meaningful: A Guide to Adapting Existing Global Health Content for Different Audiences. The guide outlines a framework with key steps and questions for consideration as well as activity sheets and an illustrative as well as real-life case studies that will help a user in making informed decisions in the content adaptation process.

Translating Course Content

We do have a small number of courses that have been independently translated. View our Translation Policy and access Translated Courses for more information.