“Fishing” for Supercourse

1. “Fishing” for Supercourse Mazen S. Zenati, MD, Ph.D Ronald LaPorte, Ph.D

2. What is Supercourse • Supercourse is a repository of lectures on global health and prevention designed to improve the teaching of prevention. • Supercourse has a network of over 65000 scientists in 174 countries who are sharing for free a library of 4135 lectures in 31 languages. • The Supercourse has been produced at the WHO Collaborating Center University of Pittsburgh

3. What is “fishing” is all about • Looking for the contacts of key people and representatives worldwide who are capable to exponentially encourage further use and expansion of Supercourse among end users • International collaboration • Targeted and planed approach • Joined efforts under central direction • Timely task Fishing=further connected worldwide

4. Why we need to get connected together worldwide • Coming down to a common ground world wide • Professional and academic networking • Encourage open communication • Sharing knowledge, resources and experiences • Overcome barriers • Propagate prevention and other health related information • Stand by others in catastrophic events • Better understanding and clear up health related challenges • Research collaborations

5. Why looking for more end users • Valuable resources need to be further utilized • Introduce more fresh blood into supercourse • Encourage the further scientific contraptions to the supercourse • Reach out for the less fortuned and less served users worldwide • Encourage field expansion to include multi- disciplinary and specialty in the supercourse

6. Potential end user groups • Ministers of health • Deans of medical schools, nursing schools, and public health schools • Faculty members of public health and community medicine • Medical, nursing and public health students • Training and education officers at health ministries • Ministers of agriculture • Community sector planners and activists • Medical informatics specialists, Public librarians, and media individuals • Social workers and other relief agency workers

7. Data need to be collected

8. Where and what to look for • Start with related organization • Medical school for deans • Ministry of Health for ministers of health • Department of community medicine (public health faculty members) • If you know the name use Google or other searching engines for further links • Take advantage of any previous events or news • Use encyclopedia or other references as source of information, for example; Wikipedia encyclopedia

9. Helpful sights • WHO directory of medical (nursing and pharmacy) schools [very helpful as you may miss on country universities, but this directory is excellent, keeping you from missing on any university! • Universities web sites • UNICEF • Wikipedia encyclopedia • Universities association • Library websites • Search engines: Google, AOL, Yahoo, etc • Subjects directories

10. Where the data is usually hidden • Look in the contact us section of the site • Look in the chairman page, dean, … • Look in about us page • Look in the site map • Look in enquires/questions • Look in direction, how to reach us • Look in the list of faculty member, officials • Look in the CV/resume of related contact

11. What to do if the site presented in a different language • Quite often the entire site is presented in a local language of that country ( eg French, Portuguese or Spanish) • Frequently a small button is available to switch the entire site into English • Contacts can be copied and passed as is in that foreign language as far as your computer can handle that font. • You can copy and paste to Google translate: http or similar ://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT# sites for English translation of certain information. • Use search engines to further investigate that foreign text ( eg www.freetranslation.com)

12. Completing other missing data points • Use links, searching engine and related site for data completion • Expand the search based on the available data • If data not found after another 15 minutes of searching leave related cells blank.

13. Easy vs. challenging fishing • Large organization • Famous organization • Large country • When you know the language, culture, and the field • With more fishing experience • With determination Easy Challenging • Non standard • Non English • Un updated sites • No email addresses • Not enough Patience • No consistency in fishing

14. Standard and non standard layout of a website • Usually proficiently built sites have a standard layout • Pages that frequently included: • Home page, contact us, site map, frequently asked questions, and directory • The access of the pages usually at the left site or at the bottom of the home page • Non proficiently built sites may have many different layouts • Regardless, keep digging, even if you end up with more generalized ‘contact us' or ‘webmail’ email address

15. Quality assurance • Start first with the important data points • Check for data accuracy at source • Data accuracy through transfer and sorting • Check for data update • Double check for data completion • Double check for data relevancy • We need every piece of data even not totally completed.. Do not erase the entire records in case could not get every single data point

16. Troubleshooting shooting • No names for the key person • Use other related web sites • Look for the secretary or vice chair • No personal e-mail • Search in the CV • Use search engines or “google” the name • Address in different language or alphabet • Translate • Take the address as is • Use your best guess • No website or any search results • Double check the spelling or the name • Use other references to check the accuracy

17. What to avoid in data collection • We are looking for a specific professional contact of the targeted person therefore avoid taking the following contacts instead: • Application submission or admission contacts • Web master contacts • Public questions contacts • Emergency or policy related contacts • Personal addresses or private contacts

18. How to speed up and budget your time • The best strategy is to not spend more than 10-15 minutes in the initial round fishing for a record • Indicate the missing section by highlighting the cell need to be completed in the second round • After completing the first round for the entire records, start visiting the same sight and have another look for the missing data. • Use links, searching engine and related site for data completion • If data not found after another 15 minutes of searching leave related cells blank.

19. Save your data • Frequently save your data during fishing • Always have a back up file in a flash drive or in your e-mail account • Avoid sorting your data before saving and backup • Safeguard your data and avoid shearing it with other people • Do not contact any one in your data base with a Supercourse representation without discussing that first with a Supercourse developer

20. Avoid viruses • Avoid open or save a file pop up to your screen while fishing • Do not open suspicious or unfamiliar sites • Empty cookies and forms in between fishing • Do not include unnecessary links

21. Keep fishing, you are doing a noble work!! • Be patient • Work in increments • Work all easy ones first • Share your accomplishments with other co-fishers • Reward yourself • Keep participating in further task, your contribution is very much appreciated

22. Questions and Comments • Please send questions and comments to: • Mazen S. Zenati, MD, Ph.D • Ronald LaPorte, Ph.D