WELCOME TO TRIUNE - UGANDA - 2009:

• Project Start: 20th April 2009

A fully online and collaborative initiative designed specifically for health sciences students and professionals worldwide.

Triune is the first international fully online education initiative designed to link students, teachers and professionals from Health Sciences disciplines globally with a rural community in Uganda.

The project will challenge a diverse, international body of students, educators and professionals - from the fields of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, sociology and anthropology - to address important global health issues through the production of written reports and creation of subsequent key health messages for people in rural Uganda.

Through these messages Triune aims to emphasise the importance of collaboration amongst these allied disciplines in the health and welfare of social communities in the developing world. This unique and innovative approach to collaborative education, research and ethical debate will promote increased social awareness and proactive involvement worldwide amongst students, teachers, health professionals, health organisations, professional bodies and education institutions.

APRIL– MAY 2009

The online project will take place over a seven-week period (April/May 2009) linking approximately 40 students with teachers and professionals from medical, nursing, pharmacy, sociology and anthropology institutions around the world. Using Omnium's unique online Studio™ software interface, participants will interact in small working teams of six (all students in each team from different locations and disciplines globally) to respond to a commonly identified health issue.

The project will be developed further in order to identify points of commonality and overlapping interests. The final work will encompass the collaborative efforts of diverse cultures and origins across time, distance and disciplines in a truly cross-disciplinary manner.

Creative work will be undertaken through a combination of individual contribution and collaborative group work. A series of creative challenges will be formulated to stimulate this process with the issues posed.

Participants will form valuable connections with colleagues in distant parts of the world, receiving regular feedback and support from peers, teachers and established professionals, using the Internet as their sole communication tool.

Triune is produced, directed and funded by the School of Pharmacy (University of Auckland, NZ).

* The first School of Pharmacy (UoA) project took place in collaboration with the School of Design Studies (UNSW) over a fourteen-week period during 2007. Creative Waves 2007 - Visualising Issues in Pharmacy (VIP) linked over two hundred pharmacy and graphic design students and their teachers from over 30 countries around the world. Participants interacted in small teams (where no team member was in the same geographic location) to produce detailed research reports and subsequent graphic and visual communication campaigns for implementation in Winam, Kenya.

http://creativewaves.omnium.net.au/vip/outline/

Convenors:

Dr. Nataly Martini

• Lecturer – Pharmacotherapy

School of Pharmacy University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand

Mr Raul Caceres

• BEng, MSc
• Online Project Manager

Sydney, Australia