title: Distance learning for rural medical officers in Kenya: the first pilot project.
abstract: Representatives from the Ministry of Health, the University of Nairobi and the Kenya Medical Association arranged a workshop in Nairobi in September, 1987 to ensure that policy makers, civil servants, academics and senior members of the medical profession would feel fully informed about the purpose and nature of distance learning. A further meeting was arranged for the supervisors and tutors who would be involved in the pilot project which was designed to validate the usefulness of distance learning materials prepared in London and to evaluate the organisational and educational aspects of the local system for distance learning. Ten rural medical officers, selected by the Ministry, met to be inducted at a briefing workshop in Mombasa. The medical officers were invited to study with three modules at their place of work during a period of six months and to complete a field project during the next six months. They were asked to keep a dairy, to use a notebook for critical comments on each module, and to complete two questionnaires. Their pre-test performance was compared with post-test performance. The results were analysed with a view to improving the modules and the local distance learning system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Nyarango
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011380:Programmed Instructions as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires