Health policy and system support to optimise community health worker programmes: an abridged WHO guideline

Optimising community health worker (CHW) programmes requires evidence-based policies on their education, deployment, and management. This guideline aims to inform efforts by planners, policy makers, and managers to improve CHW programmes as part of an integrated approach to strengthen primary health care and health systems. The development of this guideline followed the standard WHO approach to developing global guidelines. We conducted one overview of reviews, 15 systematic reviews (each one on a specific policy question), and a survey of stakeholders’ views on the acceptability and feasibility of the interventions under consideration. We assessed the quality of systematic reviews using the AMSTAR tool, and the certainty of the evidence using the GRADE methodology. The overview of reviews identified 122 eligible articles and the systematic reviews identified 137 eligible primary studies. The stakeholder perception survey obtained inputs from 96 respondents. Recommendations were developed in the areas of CHW selection, preservice education, certification, supervision, remuneration and career advancement, planning, community embeddedness, and health system support. These are the first evidence-based global guidelines for health policy and system support to optimise community health worker programmes. Key considerations for implementation include the need to define the role of CHWs in relation to other health workers and plan for the health workforce as a whole rather than by specific occupational groups; appropriately integrate CHW programmes into the general health system and existing community systems; and ensure internal coherence and consistency across different policies and programmes affecting CHWs

Manipulating and Measuring Student Engagement in Computer-Based Instruction

This study is based on pilot work that suggested that what makes hobbies engaging for adults is the opportunity to create an artifact that can be customized and shared. Further pilot studies showed that these same traits also contributed to high school seniors' enjoyment of their favorite activities both outside and inside of the classroom. These surveys suggested two hypotheses. The weak hypothesis is that giving students increased opportunities to create, customize and share will increase engagement. The strong version of the hypothesis posits that increased engagement will lead to increased attempts to learn. An instructional experiment tested these hypotheses. It used three different activities in NetLogo that varied opportunities to create, customize and share simulations on population dynamics. The study yielded positive, though moderate, support for the hypotheses, and provides insight on the future design of tools for relating motivation and learning with understanding

Open source software: A community of altruists

To learn about what drives people to devote their time and expertise to creating and supporting free-open source software, a survey with Likert-scaled items measuring different types of motivations was sent to contributors of several open source projects. Open-ended comments were used to illustrate the Likert-scaled items and open-ended questions allowed respondents to express their reasons for participating in these open source communities. Results indicate that the open source contributors (n = 110, 38 paid to work on OSS projects and 72 volunteers) are motivated primarily by a sense of altruism as well as the desire to create and learn. Payment did not significantly impact the reasons for contributing to OSS projects. The comments and open-ended questions validated the findings and indicated that building a Utopian community-the desire to help for the greater good worldwide-is one of the most important motivators. Also, respondents revealed that they join and persist as members of open source communities because they enjoy the freedom to create and share free software, tools and knowledge with others inside and outside the community. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.BAYTIYEH H, 2009, P 8 INT C COMP SUPP, P434; BERZOUKOV N, 1999, FIRST MONDAY, V4; Bitzer J, 2007, J COMP ECON, V35, P160, DOI 10.1016-j.jce.2006.10.001; Bodgan R. C., 2007, QUALITATIVE RES ED; Brown A. L., 1996, INNOVATIONS LEARNING, P289; Bryant S.L., 2005, P 2005 INT ACM SIGGR, P1, DOI 10.1145-1099203.1099205; CATTELL RB, 1966, MULTIVAR BEHAV RES, V1, P245, DOI 10.1207-s15327906mbr0102_10; Cattell R. B., 1967, MULTIVARIATE BEHAVIO, V3, P1; CROWSTON K, 2004, SOCIAL STRUCTURE OPE; DECI EL, 1991, EDUC PSYCHOL, V26, P325, DOI 10.1207-s15326985ep2603and4_6; Deci EL, 2001, REV EDUC RES, V71, P1, DOI 10.3102-00346543071001001; Dewey J., 1915, SCH TOMORROW; FIELD A., 2005, DISCOVERING STAT USI; Forte A., 2006, P 7 INT C LEARN SCI, P182; Frey B., 1997, NOT JUST MONEY EC TH; Friedman T., 2005, WORLD IS FLAT BRIEF; GLORFELD LW, 1995, EDUC PSYCHOL MEAS, V55, P377, DOI 10.1177-0013164495055003002; Harel I., 1991, CONSTRUCTIONISM; Hars A, 2002, INT J ELECTRON COMM, V6, P25; Hayton JC, 2004, ORGAN RES METHODS, V7, P191, DOI 10.1177-1094428104263675; Hertel G, 2003, RES POLICY, V32, P1159, DOI 10.1016-S0048-7333(03)00047-7; HOFFMAN ML, 1981, J PERS SOC PSYCHOL, V40, P121, DOI 10.1037--0022-3514.40.1.121; HORN JL, 1965, PSYCHOMETRIKA, V30, P179, DOI 10.1007-BF02289447; Kim J-O, 1978, FACTOR ANAL STAT MET; Knowles M. S., 1980, MODERN PRACTICE ADUL; KRISHNAMURTHY S, 2005, EUROPEAN J INFORM PR, V6, P28; Krishnamurthy S., 2002, 1 MONDAY, V7; Lakhani K. R., 2005, PERSPECTIVES FREE OP, P3; Lakhani KR, 2003, RES POLICY, V32, P923, DOI 10.1016-S0048-7333(02)00095-1; Lave J., 1991, SITUATED LEARNING LE; Lerner J, 2002, J IND ECON, V50, P197; Lerner J., 2000, SIMPLE EC OPEN SOURC; LEVITAS R, 2004, EUROPEAN LEGACY, V9, P605, DOI 10.1080-1084877042000306370; Lindenberg S, 2001, KYKLOS, V54, P317; Mannheim K, 1936, IDEOLOGY UTOPIA; MARX K, 1968, MANIFESTO COMMUNIST; Maslow Abraham, 1987, MOTIVATION PERSONALI; MAUSS M, 1959, GIFT FORM REASON EXC; Moon JY, 2002, DISTRIBUTED WORK, P381; Nakamura J., 2003, FLOURISHING POSITIVE; O'Connor BP, 2000, BEHAV RES METH INS C, V32, P396, DOI 10.3758-BF03200807; Oreg S, 2008, COMPUT HUM BEHAV, V24, P2055, DOI 10.1016-j.chb.2007.09.007; Ozinga J.R., 1999, ALTRUISM; PFAFFMAN JA, 2003, ANN M AM ED RES ASS; Raymond E. S., 1999, CATHEDRAL BAZAAR MUS; Riehle D, 2007, COMPUTER, V40, P25, DOI 10.1109-MC.2007.147; ROSSACKERMAN S, 1998, EC VALUES ORG; Rota S., 2004, ANAL KRITIK Z SOZIAL, V26, P279; Rummel R. J., 1970, APPL FACTOR ANAL; Ryan RM, 2000, CONTEMP EDUC PSYCHOL, V25, P54, DOI 10.1006-ceps.1999.1020; Schroer J, 2009, MEDIA PSYCHOL, V12, P96, DOI 10.1080-15213260802669466; Shirky C., 2008, HERE COMES EVERYBODY; Stallman R., 1994, WHY SOFTWARE SHOULD; Stallman R.M., 1999, OPEN SOURCES VOICES; Stevens J., 2002, APPL MULTIVARIATE ST; Tabachnick B. G., 2007, USING MULTIVARIATE S; Thurstone L. L., 1945, MULTIPLE FACTOR ANAL; Torvalds L., 2001, JUST FUN STORY ACCID; TORVALDS L, 1998, 1 MONDAY, V3; von Hippel E., 1988, SOURCES INNOVATION; von Hippel E, 2003, ORGAN SCI, V14, P209; WELTON M, 2005, DESIGNING JUST LEARN; Wenger E., 2002, CULTIVATING COMMUNIT; WENTZEL KR, 1994, J EDUC PSYCHOL, V86, P173, DOI 10.1037-0022-0663.86.2.173; WLODKOWSKI RJ, 1989, INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN; Wu CG, 2007, INFORM MANAGE-AMSTER, V44, P253, DOI 10.1016-j.im.2006.12.006; ZWICK WR, 1986, PSYCHOL BULL, V99, P432, DOI 10.1037-0033-2909.99.3.43212111

Volunteers in Wikipedia: Why the community matters

Wikipedia is a reliable encyclopedia with over seven million articles in several languages all contributed and maintained by volunteers. To learn more about what drives people to devote their time and expertise to building and maintaining this remarkable resource, surveys with Likert-scaled items measuring different types of motivations were completed by 115 Wikipedia administrators. The survey also included comments and openended questions that were used to check the validity of the Likert-scaled items and allow participants to express their reasons for being a Wikipedian. The Likert-scaled items showed that Wikipedia administrators are largely driven by motivations to learn and create. The comments and open-ended questions indicated that altruism - the desire to create a public repository for all knowledge - is one of the most important factors. © International Forum of Educational Technology and Society (IFETS).