Teaching community health by exploiting international socio-cultural and economical differences.

We describe a CSCL scenario through which socio-economic and cultural differences between countries can be exploited for teaching community health to medical students in Switzerland, Tunisia, Cameroon and Lebanon. This scenario is structured around phases and roles. In order to stimulate social interaction, the activities rely on the confrontation of different national health contexts and different health issues. The activities take place in an hybrid face-to-face and web-based learning space, regulated by the teachers. The knowledge base of the environment contains various forms of knowledge such as fact sheets, clinical cases, intervention strategies, web links and a glossary. The course contents have been identified through the DELPHI method allowing the construction of a consensus between health experts of the four countries. The environment interface is articulated around a graphical representation of the scenario. This lightweight web site can be easily consulted by students with low bandwidth.