Abstract

MUNOZ MOREJON, Madelayne; PORTUONDO SANCHEZ, Carmen Luisa; JIMENEZ LOPEZ, Giset  and  GALVEZ GONZALEZ, Ana María. Information and communications technologies in the master's degree course on Health Economics. Rev. cuba. inf. cienc. salud [online]. 2016, vol.27, n.4, pp.491-502. ISSN 2307-2113.

The use of information and communications technologies is highly relevant in training. The National School of Public Health has implemented a system of courses on the subject for the training of students attending the institution. Ever since it was started, the program of excellence for the master's degree in Health Economics has included the course "Information and Communications Technologies for Health Professionals". For the current fifth edition, the teaching staff has been strengthened and the course is equipped with the technological means required for its development. The present paper is aimed at describing the results of the course upon implementation in the virtual classroom of the National School of Public Health. The methods used were bibliographic review and document analysis to update contents, analysis of platform reports, and an unstructured survey to identify strengths and challenges. The results obtained included updating of the contents dealt with and implementation of a practical training program on the use of collaborative work tools and bibliographic managers. Participation in virtual classroom activities was high, and improvement was noticed in the preparation of the teaching staff, students' motivation and the novelty of topics. The course provided participants with techniques to search, organize, research and publish contents related to health economics. It is concluded that the use of virtual environments enables the consolidation of technological and informational competences based on self-learning and collaborative work, as well as the appropriation of contents and a more efficient use of the virtual environment with respect to initial familiarization.

Keywords : information and communications technologies; virtual classroom; collaborative work tools; virtual environment; Health Economics.

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