Frequently Asked Questions

Follow these suggestions to enhance your online community and engage others online:

• Post community blogs regularly updating members with news and events. You can use your community blog to make announcements or pose questions to members; your message can go directly to their email (simply uncheck "Do not send notifications..");
  • Tip: Ask direct questions in your blogs so that others have something to respond to
• Invite guest bloggers to post on a topic of interest to the community;
• Start a collaborative wiki project (you could begin with a simple list of what people want to talk about or an outline for a new draft document you want to create);
• Post useful resources and ask others for feedback or to post their preferred resources as well;
• Plan discussion events (Post an event to be online to discuss a particular topic and invite others to join you; you could also use the forums as a way to capture an interview/conversation).

Check this wiki to find more tips from CHEC-CESC's community admins.

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To create your own account, follow these simple steps:

1) Go to www.chec-cesc.ca and click “Create new account”
Fill out and submit your user information, then check your email for a one-time, temporary password (it should arrive within minutes of creating an account).

2) Login and personalize your CHEC-CESC account.
Once logged in, click “My Account” to change your password, upload your own picture or logo, and write a brief bio introducing yourself.

Start sharing and interacting on CHEC-CESC

• “Add a Blog post” create a post to share  recent news, events and ideas
• On your Profile page, explore “Tags” then “Add subscription” to receive email updates on topics you are interested in (e.g. Aboriginal Health; e-Learning, Community Health, etc)
• Browse “Communities” to join and participate in active communities on a wide range of topics  
• “Add a Resource/Bookmark” to upload your own resources to share with others on CHEC-CESC
• Go to the “Library,” “Blogs” or “Collections” to browse content shared by other members of CHEC-CESC

Comment créer votre propre compte:

Étape 1 : Allez à www.chec-cesc.ca et cliquez sur le lien pour créer un nouveau compte (Create new account).

Inscrivez les renseignements sur l’utilisateur, soumettez le formulaire, puis vérifiez dans vos courriels où vous recevrez un mot de passe ponctuel temporaire (quelques minutes après avoir créé un compte).

Étape 2 : Entrez en session et personnalisez votre compte CHEC-CESC.

Une fois en session, cliquez sur votre compte (My account) pour changer votre mot de passe, télécharger votre photo ou logo et rédiger votre  brève présentation biographique. 

Commencez à communiquer et à interagir sur CHEC-CESC

• Créez un blogue en cliquant sur le bouton à cet effet (Add a Blog post) pour faire connaître les nouvelles, les activités et les idées les plus récentes.
• Sur votre page de profil, allez voir les sujets (tags) et abonnez-vous pour recevoir des mises à jour par courriel sur ceux qui vous intéressent (p. ex. santé des Autochtones, apprentissage en ligne, santé communautaire, etc.).
• Furetez dans la liste des communautés pour vous joindre et participer à des communautés actives sur une grande diversité de sujets. 
• Téléchargez vos ressources que vous voulez partager avec d’autres sur CHEC-CESC en cliquant sur le lien pour ajouter une ressource ou un signet (Add a Resource/Bookmark).
• Allez voir la bibliothèque, les blogues ou les collections pour fureter dans le contenu que font connaître les autres membres de CHEC-CESC.

To help users browse content by theme or topic, CHEC-CESC provides theme pages that can be accessed through tags on the site and offers pathways to related materials, discussions, ideas, people and events all on one page. Theme pages connect communities with similar topics and help increase the exposure of resources contributed by our CHEC-CESC members.

Use the theme page to search the site by topic and access communities, blogs, wikis, forums, events and resources.

Theme pages can be accessed from the tag cloud on the CHEC-CESC homepage or through tags associated with blogs, forums, library resources, and events. (e.g. you may be browsing through one of CHEC-CESC’s recognized collections, the Virtual Patient Gallery, and wonder if other users have posted similar content. Simply click on one of the “virtual patient” tags you see attached to a resource in the collection and a new theme page will open. From there, click on the links of interest and explore other resource on CHEC-CESC related to virtual patients.)

Access theme pages from the tag cloud on the CHEC-CESC homepage:

Access theme pages through tags associated with blogs, forums, library resources and events:

There are several ways to find and join communities on CHEC-CESC. You can browse communities on the site to find those of interest to you or you can find communities related to a topic of interest using the CHEC-CESC theme page feature. You may also have received an email inviting you to join a specific community.

Within a community, you can create blogs to share news or pose questions to other community members; post upcoming events or discussion topics; collaborate on wiki projects and share your own resources or bookmarks (see step 4 of How to Add a Community for more information on posting blogs, wikis or resources).

To join a community you are interested in, follow these simple steps:

1) When logged into your CHEC-CESC account, navigate to the community you wish to join (read above for how to find communities) and click “Join” or “Request Membership”

For open communities, you are immediately made a member of that community and can now view community resources and message as well as post your own.

2) If the community is moderated, you will be asked to confirm your request to join the community and to provide additional details that may help the community administrator decide whether to approve or deny your membership.

Your request will be emailed to the community administrator for approval. Once approved, you will receive an email notifying you that you are now a member and may now read and post messages or resources. A link to the community will automatically be saved to your My CHEC page under the “My Communities” header or you can click the link provided in the approval email to navigate back to the community

3) If the community is invite-only or closed, you must contact the community administrator directly and request to be added.

Locate the Community Admin on the right-side of the community homepage and click on the member name.

On the user profile page, click the “Contact” button above their name to bring up a contact form. Fill in your subject line and message just as you would fill in a regular email then click “Send e-mail.”

To add a community, follow these simple steps:

1) When logged into your CHEC-CESC account, navigate to “My CHEC” and click the left-side menu link “Add a Community.”

2) Fill out the information asked for on-screen, keeping in mind that this information will help other users determine what is the focus and accessibility of your community.

Helpful tips:

• Visualize your Community
  Do you have a community you would like to see on CHEC-CESC? Here’s how…

• Manage membership requests to your new community
  Access to a community is established by the community manager and can be designated as:
  • Open(all users have access to the community and its resources)
  • Moderated (users may request membership in the community and approval is at the discretion of the community administrator/creator)
  • Invite only (the community administrator/creator sends invites to select users or email addresses)
  • Closed – (joining or leaving the community is exclusively managed by the administrator/creator)

• Use keywords or “tags” to help other users find your community
  Think about search terms you or others may use to try to find your community. This could be names of projects, organizations, areas of specialization or other themes. Enter these terms into the “Tag” field of the Add a Community form separating each with a comma.

Click here to see a full list of explanations for each information field on the Add a Community form.

3) Once you are satisfied with the information you have entered on the Add a Community form, click “Save” and you will be brought to the main page of your new community. A link to your new community will also automatically be saved to your My CHEC page under the “My Communities” header.

4) You are now ready to start enhancing your community! Join the CHEC-CESC Community Admins group for further help and check our these tips to getting started in your community.

On the CHEC-CESC site, you can upload and share your own resources publicly or within specific communities. You can also share links to resources already available online. Here’s how…

To Add a Resource, follow these simple steps:

1)      When logged into your CHEC-CESC account, click one of the left-side menu links to “Add a Resource” on your My CHEC page or on any Community homepage of which you are a member. If you add a resource from within a Community, it will automatically become a part of that Community’s library.

2)      Fill out the information asked for on-screen, keeping in mind that this information will help other users determine what your resource is about. Be as descriptive as possible.
Click here for explanations of the Add a Resource fields

3)      Once you are satisfied with the information you have entered on the Add a Resource form, click “Save” and you will be brought to your new resource. The resource will automatically be saved to your My CHEC page under the “My Library” header or to the Library section of the Communities you selected to share the resource with during the creation process.

Copy and paste the web address of your resource to add it to blog, forum or wiki posts or to share the resource by email. You can find the web address of your resource in the address bar of your browser.

To create a topic for discussion you must first navigate to a community of which you are a member. Once you are in a community, you will see the heading For This Community on the left side of the page. Under this heading, click the link to Add a topic for discussion. A form will pop up and you are ready to start writing. Don’t forget to press the save button before you leave the page. 

Your post will automatically be shared with the community and you have the option to send your message by email to all members of the community. You may also choose to share your message across other communities of which you are a member, or publicly with all CHEC-CESC users. If you share your post publicly, it will appear in the Site Blog listing.

MyBlog  is your own personal blog. To create MyBlog click on MyAccount or MyCHEC. On the left side of the page you will see a link to Add a Blog Post. A form will pop up and you are ready to start writing. Don’t forget to press the save button before you leave the page.

Your personal blog posts will be included on the Site Blog listing for all users to view. It will also be included in various "recently updated" lists on the site. You may also choose to share your message with communities of which you are a member and to send notifications by email to other members of those communities.

MyBlog is a personal blog. You are the sole author/editor of your personal blog and posts can be viewed by everyone on the CHEC-CESC site. Your MyBlog messages will appear on the Site Blog listing.

Community Dialogue is designed for users to share messages within their community. Every member of a community can post a topic for discussion to their Community Dialogue section and share their posts by email with all members of their community. For each post, users may also choose to share their message across other communities of which they are a member, or publicly with all CHEC-CESC users.

A CHEC-CESC Collection is a series of learning objects, complete or in-development, relating to a common thematic (e.g. addictions) or functional (e.g. Virtual Patients) area. CHEC features Collections as a service through which educators and student communities on the CHEC-CESC site can receive recognition for their efforts to create and share their library of educational works.

CHEC-CESC will recognize a Collection based on an analysis of the criteria and process by which a community has gathered, created and compiled the learning objects. While CHEC-CESC does not undertake to evaluate each resource by way of an external peer-review or editorial review, it will review how the collection of resources was established. (e.g. Who is involved in the community? What are the criteria for inclusion? What would be excluded from the collection?)

To initiate a Collection contact Catherine Peirce, CHEC-CESC Project Manager, at: cpeirce@afmc.ca

The Canadian Healthcare Education Commons/La Collaboration pour l'éducation en santé au Canada (CHEC-CESC) is an initiative of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) and the 17 faculties of medicine we represent. The mission of CHEC-CESC is to support the healthcare education community by providing a free, inter-professional platform of web-based services – a database of pedagogical resources, and collaborative tools for educators and learners. CHEC-CESC is designed to encourage the active sharing, development, and exchange of evidence-based resources, materials, and pedagogical tools including virtual patients and electronic cases. Most importantly, CHEC-CESC was created to allow educators and learners to leverage existing investments and reduce the costly duplication in efforts of developing teaching and learning resources.

Goals for CHEC-CESC

Offer an online environment www.chec-cesc.ca to:

• Encourage the active sharing, development, and exchange of educational materials and pedagogical tools.
• Permit members to offer feedback and evaluate resources.
• Support discourse among members with a particular focus on the challenges inherent in teaching and learning.
• Facilitate collaboration on projects and research and report on work that is relevant to its members.

CHEC-CESC Web Portal

CHEC-CESC is a user-driven site designed specifically for healthcare educators and learners.
Members can build and contribute to a health education knowledgebase through the CHEC-CESC:

• Virtual library (referatory and repository with thematic collections),
• Communities of practice (collaborative workspace), and
• Professional network

Virtual Library

The CHEC-CESC Virtual Library is a database for users to:

• Upload and store resources
• Bookmark and share links to relevant sites
• Build collections of resources on a specific topic
• Search for individuals, groups, resource and research related to healthcare education

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Communities of Practice

Members can participate in communities on the site.

• A CHEC-CESC community is an online workspace with collaborative tools including a blog, events calendar, library, and wiki
• Any user can create and moderate a community
• Communities can be set up to limit access to specific group members or open to all members of the site 

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Professional Network

The CHEC-CESC site is designed to help educators and students expand their networks. CHEC-CESC makes it easy to connect to individuals, insight and resources related to healthcare education and research.

Members can connect through:

• Member Profiles
• Blogs
• Search 

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Tour CHEC-CESC

A) Browse content in the:

                          Library | Communities | Blogs

B) Search by:

                          Topic | User

For a site demonstration or for more information on CHEC-CESC, please contact us.