Tutoring in an Online Learning Environment (2016)

This 2016 English edition, is presented as a strategic contribution of the VCPH / PAHO for all organizational units and Anglophone nodes requiring the training of professionals in the areas of design, coordination and mentorship courses in the framework of their technical cooperation projects.

The course offers a panoramic perspective of the various tasks and functions inherent in managing online training, providing both reflective and instrumental views, and ensuring good training practices within the perspective of Permanent Education in Health . (1)

“ The permanent education concept is adopted as a continuum of work-learning actions that occurs in a space of health work/ production/education, which departs from an existing situation (generally a problem situation), and is directed at overcoming it, at changing it, at transforming it into a different and desired situation.” (2)

[1] Davini MC. Educación permanente en salud. Washington: Organização Panmericana de La Salud; 1995.
[2] Ricaldoni CAC, de Sena RR. Permanent education: a tool to think and act in nursing work. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2006;14(6):837–42.

This course is extremely important for the educational proposals of the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) and the academic institutions of the region, because of the promotion of continuing education as well as the development of Public Health human resources.

Continuing education has received a major boost since the inception of the information and communication technologies, particularly with the use of Internet as an educational tool. These new tools allow:

• Efficient interaction in order to facilitate more agile communications when using the exchange of experiences and group discussions, where group reflections and analyses are taken into account for the building of knowledge in a collaborative way.
• Access to the learning environment from different places and according to personal schedules. This grants greater flexibility to the educational proposals as well as more autonomy to students; encouraging them to use their individual learning processes based on their own rhythms and interests.

• Access to information sources that enable the exchange of professional experiences between students from different cultures and nationalities offering unprecedented network learning opportunities.

Throughout the course, participants will receive constant assistance and support from their tutors. This will also provide them with the framework for their subsequent job as tutors in the virtual educational programs. This will also allow them to experience what their future students will experience and to better understand the processes they will go through and the challenges they will face.

We hope this will be a positive and successful experience for all!

• Develop virtual teaching skills within the framework of the Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH).
• Analyze the training of health professionals from a Continuing Education in Health perspective.
• Provide an overview of how to edit and set up materials in Moodle classrooms.
• Support the design and assembly of virtual educational proposals.