about

HERADU represents collaboration between e-learning specialists, healthcare professionals, academics and educators. Based at the University of Leicester, the aim of HERADU is to attract input and partnership from individuals, groups and institutions internationally.

a collaboration between e-learning specialists, healthcare professionals, academics and educators

What can HERADU do?

It is important to understand what training is most vital to different groups in different countries. This is a current research area. Following such research suitable material needs to be collected, and programmes authored and prepared for dissemination. Finally the impact of the programmes produced needs to be formally researched and modified as needed to ensure they are of maximum benefit to patient care.

HERADU aims to cover each of these stages by bringing together experts in different fields.

We are able to:

• Identify projects that will make the most difference to patient care
  
• To research what is actually needed by various groups in terms of contents and the technical aspects of delivering multimedia teaching to each group
• Call on experts in almost all medical and surgical fields from the UK and abroad to ensure collection of material and authoring is of the highest quality
• Produce multimedia teaching material of the highest quality, including high definition videos of clinical cases, procedures and medical equipment, accompanied as needed with 3D and 2D animations, drawings and voiceovers. Our aim is to bring each subject to "life".
• Call upon experts in medical education to work on and review the projects during their production
• To perform research to assess whether the projects we have undertaken and programmes we have produced actually make a difference in the clinical arena

Delivery of educational material

The majority of our work will be delivered via the Internet. Our target is very wide including doctors, nurses, medical students and other healthcare professionals. The beauty of the programmes produced is they maybe adapted for different groups to ensure appropriate material and explanations are presented for each group.

Eventually, delivery of teaching via the internet will be truly global. However, we are aware that this is not possible in certain countries and for certain user groups. We have, therefore, produced and have the ability to continue to produce:

• DVDs and CD-ROMs of the programmes for computer use. These may be linked to the internet for assessment purposes.
• DVDs that maybe used in a simple television player or portable DVD player. Such an approach will allow access to user groups that do not have computer skills or access to computers. Our research has shown that such an approach will allow access to very distant rural communities in developing countries.

The developing world

Wherever appropriate, our aim is to develop programmes that are of use in both the developed and developing world. Our group has been researching the delivery of multimedia medical education in Africa and has on-going projects there.