1. John Owen & Stewart Taylor
Master of Public Health
Offline content for
mobile devices
John Owen & Stewart Taylor
The MPH is a fully online international distance learning programme. We will talk about how we provide the course content in various formats to suit a variety of mobile devices.

2. History Been running since 2002
Always provided an offline version of materials
Used when no internet connection or no VLE service
Provides a course reference for duration of programme
Does not substitute full online version
Originally posted out on CD
After 2 years moved to downloadable package
Always provided an offline version of materials
Why – internet wasn’t what it is today.
Students all over the world
Offline copy to be used when no internet available
Always was going to be an online course – student interaction
Students studying part-time over 5 years then have copies of courses to refer back to
and How
CD – not practical eg, errors and amend
2004 moved to a zipped up webpages – download and view on PC/Mac
Requests for a printable version were resisted – wanted to emphasise the fully online and interactive nature of the course.

3. New mobile formats
Students increasingly requesting content in alternative formats
2012 – produced 2 new formats
PDF
Kindle ebook
All formats based on original documents that are produced for Blackboard
Previous to 2010 – students asked for different formats
2012 – we came up with 2 new formats
Chose kindle as the most popular ebook reader
Adobe Acrobat Professional – PDF
Find and Replace tool to remove certain tags and content for the kindle version
Calibre (free) to create the kindle ebook

9. Evaluation
Evaluation completed end of 2013 academic year

10. What next?
Developing formats
iBook
Interactive PDF