Building capacity and improving women's access to education through the Intelligence eHealth MOOCs Commons CRS ICT4D Conference, St. Charles, IL, May 27, 2015 Dr. Lilia Pérez-Chavolla, Senior Advisor on ICT Applications Millennia2025 Foundation, WeObservatory The Women Observatory for eHealth Millennia2025 Foundation is an initiative of The Destree Institute, under the high patronage of the UNESCO

Millennia2025 Women & Innovation Foundation Implements the Millennia2015 foresight exercise action plans for women's empowerment and gender equality through digital solidarity In 140 countries, with 10,000 members

Millennia2025 Foundation Global Action Plans The WeObservatory highlights the crucial role of women in global health, eHealth and telemedicine, as well as their recognized capacity as builders of alternative futures

Value of MOOCs for women’s empowerment Capacity building - key factor for socio-economic development and women’s empowerment Women’s access to tertiary education remains extremely low Increased ICT penetration and more affordable mobile and broadband services worldwide can help overcome some of these barriers New ways to access free educational resources using the Internet - MOOCs

Intelligence MOOCs Commons for Women and eHealth Goal: Facilitate women’s access to online education in the areas of global health, women, and ICT

Criteria used to select MOOCs Widely recognized platforms and educational institutions Free access Areas of interest to the WeObservatory: Health, women and ICT Language: English, Spanish, and/or French—three of the six UN official languages

Top five platforms represented in WeMOOCs Platform# CoursesLanguages % of total selected Coursera117English, Spanish34 USAID54English16 Alison.com53English, Spanish16 EdX25English, Spanish7 France Université Numérique (FUN) 25French7 Of the 340 courses selected for WeMOOCs and 21 represented platforms:

Analysis of MOOC offerings: Language & type of course

Analysis of MOOC offerings: Topics

Selected MOOCs: Key topics covered

Focus on the Mobile Component 8 mHealth related courses found

MOOCs: Identified gaps & bridging efforts None of the platforms searched since 2014 offer MOOCs on the use of ICT for health by women or for women’s health Lack of multilinguism and courses focusing on gender issues The Millennia2025 Foundation is currently working towards two goals: 1.Develop a digital platform in collaboration with Promis, the European Commission initiative for digital jobs 2.Develop a closed online course to educate professional midwives and healthcare professionals on the use of ICT for maternal health and midwifery

Bridging the gap: CASA’s online course CASA – Center for Adolescents of San Miguel de Allende Only professional midwifery school in rural Mexico Online course covering ICT use for maternal health and midwifery (Sept. - Dec. 2014) Students: Midwives, OB-GYNs, general practitioners

Online course on ICT for Midwives Revisions to CASA’s online course are in process Revised course to be available later in 2015, using the Millennia2025 Intelligence Platform

Work in progress Med-e-Tel 2015 Conference session on “Empowering Women in eHealth and Telemedicine through Education” (May 2015) ogram ogram WHO and the Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (JISfTeH) published a Special issue on Women and eHealth (May 2015): Millennia2025 is seeking international organizations and universities worldwide to partner with in the development of a MOOC on Women and eHealth. If interested, contact Dr. Veronique Thouvenot at: foundation.org foundation.org

Conclusions More work is needed to facilitate access of non- English speakers to higher education courses and promote in depth coverage of gender equity issues MOOC courses can help build capacity among women and health professionals worldwide WeMOOCs and the WeObservatory seek to provide an innovative e-platform at the service of women and health professionals in the Post-2015 framework

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