HRH Global Resource Center Launches First eLearning Course: Spotlight on iHRIS Administrator: Level 1
To meet countries’ demands to help build their information technology capacity, CapacityPlus’s HRH Global Resource Center (GRC) launched an eLearning course that provides instructions on the basic skill set needed to administer and customize CapacityPlus’s human resources information systems (HRIS) software, iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify. 
iHRIS Administrator: Level 1, developed by Dr. Carl Leitner, Carol Bales, Beth Massie, Rebecca Rhodes, and Angela McCune, is a self-paced, online course based on field-tested training materials created by Leitner for use in Ghana and Tanzania.
Though the course is beginner level, “It’s aimed at current or aspiring iHRIS administrators who have ICT or developer backgrounds,” says Carol Bales. The course includes lessons, quizzes, audio and video instruction, and transcripts.
Several countries have requested the course, including Tanzania, Ghana, Lesotho, Uganda, and the Philippines. “The Philippines doesn’t have direct support from CapacityPlus or other IntraHealth International-led projects, so there is really no other way to help them, aside from answering developer questions,” says Bales. “Also, the eLearning course helps CapacityPlus meet its goal of diversifying and growing the iHRIS developer base, which in turn builds local capacity to implement the iHRIS software,” she adds.
During the course development process, the developers shared draft versions with beta testers. At the University of Dar es Salaam’s Computer Science unit, Dr. Juma Lungo has already used the draft modules to conduct training for over 60 people. Other beta testers included:
- HRIS interns in Uganda
- The Pakistan Nursing Council iHRIS administrator
- A master’s degree student at the University of the Philippines-Manila, who is focusing her thesis research on iHRIS.
“In keeping with the project’s commitment to Open Source, we developed the GRC eLearning program using the Moodle platform,” says Beth Massie. Moodle is low-bandwidth friendly, which is important for use in the field. It is already the dominant Open Source eLearning software, so it is likely to have better community support for issues, and it has a variety of plug-in modules for additional features.
In Tanzania, the University of Dar es Salaam and University of Dodoma already plan to offer iHRIS Administrator: Level 1 as part of their computer science curricula. The course developers anticipate that people in at least five countries will take the course, and that universities will customize the course for their needs. “We hope that countries will share with us how they are using it and the number of students who are taking it,” says Bales.
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Photo courtesy of Carol Bales
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