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Country Analysis Assignment in preparation for the Symposium Discussion

OVERVIEW

For the first part of the assignment, the class will be divided into groups with 30 students each. Each group will then divide into 5 teams of six students each. Each 6-person team will represent a different country. Teams will then spend from week 6 (starting on February 11th) through week 10 (ending on March 17th) studying and preparing for the Symposium (weeks 11 through 15 of the course). Since the Symposium is 5 weeks long, every team of 6 students will present one country each week to the rest of their group.

This assignment is intended to be a “simulation” where half of you will be able to be “MOH” officials and the other half will be “consulting teams” for a health reform project on the countries that you choose to analyze.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

In each group, the first task will be to divide into the 5 sub-groups or teams. Each team will choose a country and decide in which of the 5 weeks of the Symposium they want to be the presenters. We have suggested Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, France, and Germany, but since this course has participants from all over the world, you can decide which countries you want to discuss in your groups and in what order you want to present them during the 5 weeks of the Symposium.

Once each group has 5 teams and each team has chosen a country, then you will start writing your assignments in the “Collaborations” section (use “Collaborations” in your small group work space, not in the general course section that we have been using so far). In each team (maximum of 6 students), half of the team (3 students) will represent the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the chosen country (let’s say for example Canada), and the other half (the other 3 students of the same team) will constitute a “Consulting Team” for the MOH.

Instructions for the MOH team

The half of the team representing the MOH will start looking for information on that country (Please see: References Countries & Health Systems). Using the link to the Moh Country Report Format as a guide, the MOH sub-team will copy and paste the format into a collaboration that the team will create in the “Collaborations” section of your group work-space Once you start writing your report, you can make small modifications to the format, but you should try to keep it as close as possible to the format provided so we can all review similar information for each country. The main purpose of your MOH report is to identify 3 problems and then select one of them so your “consulting” team can start working on the proposed solutions for that particular health problem in your country.

Instructions for the Consultants’ Team

Based on the problem selected, the consultant half of the team will then write a report that proposes solutions to the problem. This sub-team will have a link to the Consultant Report Format that can be copied and pasted into the Collaborations section of your group work-space Once you start writing your report, you can make small modifications to the format, but you should try to keep it as close as possible to the format provided so we can all review similar information for each country.

Instructions for both teams in the group

Both reports – the MOH and the Consultants’ reports – should be ready as a final draft by the end of week 10 so we can start the discussions of each country in week 11.

If one group has less than 30 students, or if any one of the members of the group drops the course before the discussions of the Symposium, the other members of the teams should complete the assignment to insure that the group can have an interesting discussion during the Symposium. The groups can be smaller than 6 members for each country, but there should be at least one student in each team representing the MOH and one student being the consultant. If the group is smaller than 30 students, you can also decide to choose less than 5 countries and/or discus a country for more than one week. Every group will have to make their own decisions to make the most of this assignment and to have the opportunity to discuss and analyze a variety of countries during the Symposium.

Good luck and congratulations on your role in this course!