The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46072

Marlene J Egger, PhD, Public Health Program, University of Utah, 375 Chipeta Way,Suite A, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, 801-587-3335, megger@sisna.com, Sheila H Parker, MS, MPH, DrPH, CHES, Director, Health Education and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona College of Public Health, PO Box 245158, Tucson, AZ 85724, Iman A. Hakim, MD, PhD, MPH, College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1515 N Campbell Ave., PO Box 245024, Tucson, AZ 85724, Alison Regan, PhD, Technologically Assisted Curriculum Center, University of Utah, Marriott Library, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, Iris Berry, BSW, Prevention Coordinator, Tucson Urban League, Inc, 2305 South Park Ave, Tucson, AZ 85713, Elizabeth Hulette, RN, MS, Division of Public Health Nursing, Pima County Health Department, 150 W. Congress, Tucson, AZ 85701-1333, and Kathy Kennedy, DrPH, MA, Director, Regional Institute for Health and Environmental Leadership, University of Colorado, University of Denver, 2201 South Fillmore Street, Denver, CO 80210.

The goal of the Rocky Mountain Public Health Education Consortium (RMPHEC) is to improve the health status of women of child-bearing age, children and their families by enhancing the leadership, scholarship and partnership skills of geographically isolated and under-served MCH public health practitioners in the Rocky Mountain States and West-Central Cluster. HRSA MCHB program priorities view distance learning modalities as an opportunity and a potentially effective means to increase access to important, current information and opportunities for skill development in MCH practice. This distance learning project builds educational infrastructure and academic/practice partnerships by training regional teams of MCH academic/practice collaborators to build webcourses, audiotapes, and other distance learning offerings based on regional needs assessments. Teams include a lead curriculum developer, content expert(s), practitioner representatives, family/consumer/youth representatives and a distance learning technician. Teams receive skills updates in the areas of distance learning instructional design; infusion of culturally competent content, perspectives, and learning formats; adult learning; and problem - based learning. Another regional expert provides formative and summative evaluation. A case-study will be presented.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• articulate the tradeoffs between exclusively academic versus academic/practice/consumer teams in developing MCH distance learning offerings for isolated and under-served practitioners in the Rocky Mountain/west-central cluster.
• assess the feasibility of regional curriculum development teams.
• describe a case study of distance learning course development using such teams, and the effects on logistics, educational quality, cultural competence, and immediate usefulness to practitioners of the offering.

Keywords: Distance Learning, Distance Education Development

Related Web page: services.tacc.utah.edu/rmphec

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Rocky Mountain Public Health Education Consortium, a consortium of public health practitioners and academics
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: The Rocky Mountain Public Health Education Consortium (RMPHEC) is a regional consortium of MCH practitioners, consumer representatives, and their academic partners at 6 universities in the Rocky Mountain states and west-central cluster. RMPHEC provides c