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costly in terms of time and money, but also

were difficult to run in a timely manner

following recruitment, and difficult to refresh.

In addition, classroom training depended on

a cadre of 15 trainers who, over time, had

dwindled in number, making classroom

methods difficult to sustain.

The project's goal was to increase the

resilience of training health workers through

the use of technology-enhanced learning,

but before they could achieve this the MRCG

would have to ensure appropriate

infrastructure for e-learning, including power,

network and computing facilities. They also

needed to resolve issues surrounding high

running costs of training and develop a

sustainable supply of trainers who would

provide a standardised quality of training.

The Solution

MRCG decided to address sustainability of

the local training provision through a threephase funded project that would tackle issues

surrounding the quality and number of

trainers plus the technological infrastructure

that would underpin much of the training

delivery.

Three-phased Implementation

The first project phase was to test the

possibility of running e-learning as a means

of making the training process more timely

and reliable. The reason for testing was that

in 2012 the infrastructure in The Gambia was

not set up for e-learning in remote areas, as it

was difficult to access power, internet and

devices.

In 2013, once the capability of the local

environment to run e-learning had been

tested, the second phase of the project was

to develop and implement an eight-module

basic-training technology enhanced

curriculum. The reason for the second phase

was to test and develop the local capacity in

terms of staff, skills and support for e-learning

for those who did not work with computers

as part of their vocation. This phase was

successfully completed in 2014, yielding

lessons that could be addressed before the

third phase of the project.

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