In the Classroom: Real Apps for Real Global Health
Stakes are always high for students presenting final projects. But when the audience is a packed room of public health professionals, and the projects will be piloted in the real world by real partners, “it takes it to another level,” says Faith Umoh.
Umoh and her classmates concluded their course, GH804: Using Mobile Technology to Improve Health Outcomes, with the fifth annual Mobile Health Showcase at Dimagi, a software social enterprise based in Cambridge, on May 10. Partnering with Dimagi and using their mobile platform CommCare, six groups of students created apps to improve the effectiveness of the work their client organizations are doing on the ground around the world.
“This class is so much fun,” says Associate Professor of Global Health James Wolff, who leads the course. “We have real clients who really want the mobile apps that we’re developing, and I think that changes everything in the educational paradigm, because students have an opportunity to do real work for real organizations.”