Open Education for Eye Health Case Study

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face critical shortages of resources related to eye health, such as limited training facilities and training personnel, as well as a shortage of ophthalmologists and eye care specialists. Open Education for Eye Health (OEEH), an initiative led by the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), responds directly to these issues. The programme focuses on collaboratively developing and delivering a series of seven open online courses and associated open educational resources (OER). It aims to empower students, educators, managers, and leaders in eye health to build knowledge and skills in public health eye care and strengthen both clinical and teaching practice for the elimination of avoidable blindness.

Established in 2015, the ongoing initiative has a core team of five people, together with 130 individual collaborators from approximately 30 countries.  OEEH also set up formal partnerships with various institutions, including the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa and the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) in Kenya. To date, the initiative has created approximately 300 OER in several disciplines, including Public Health, Global Health, Ophthalmology, Diabetes, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Trachoma, and Neonatal Care.

This case study is based on desktop research, an online survey response from one of the project leads, and an online interview with the two project leads who were working on OEEH at the time.