NEW YORK—Orbis—a non-profit organization that focuses on the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness—launched three new eLearning courses on Cybersight, Orbis’ online training and mentorship telemedicine platform for eye health professionals in low and middle-income countries. The courses— Fundamentals in MSICS, Fundamentals of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and Ophthalmic Nursing Fundamentals—are firsts in a series designed to cover fundamentals across ophthalmic disciplines and subspecialties. The courses are designed with curriculum modeled under blended learning: an approach which will allow educators and residency program directors to combine online content with in-person hands-on skills training sessions, including volunteer faculty on the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital and in local hospitals.

“At Orbis, we’ve been using Cybersight, the Flying Eye Hospital, and hospital based trainings as distinctive platforms to build of the skills of eyecare teams around the world,” said Amelia Geary, director, Program Development and Quality. “Orbis has now started creating course content that can stand alone for online learners and can be accessed from anywhere, but is best when paired with hands-on training in a blended learning approach.”

The courses combine narrative, medical art and images, demonstration and surgical videos to optimize the learning experience. They also include downloadable articles, guidelines and practice manuals for reference and educational materials. Several modules make up one course, so that one course can be used in three ways: as the full blended course with in-person and online training, all modules online for a certificate, or one specific module.

The Alcon Foundation, a longtime global corporate partner of Orbis, funded both the pediatrics and nursing courses and is providing funding for the development of Fundamentals in Phacoemulsification and Fundamentals in Glaucoma courses allotted for 2018.

Anyone can register for an account, where the curricula are made available on the Cybersight library, in the “Ophthalmic Educators” folder. For any questions on the courses, contact Amelia Geary at amelia.geary@orbis.org.