One Year of Pandemic Learning Response: Benefits of Massive Online Delivery of the World Health Organization's Technical Guidance

Training a Continent: A Process Evaluation of Virtual Training on Infection Prevention and Control in Africa During COVID-19

BACKGROUND

Strengthening infection prevention and control (IPC) capacity was identified as a key intervention to prepare African Union member states to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus, which helped implement the Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 Outbreak response, the IPC Technical Working Group (IPC TWG) was convened to coordinate the development of IPC core components for preparedness, response, and recovery from COVID-19. As part of the IPC TWG's work, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with the Infection Control Africa Network, delivered virtual IPC training sessions targeted to African Union member states. We aimed to undertake a process evaluation of this training to inform and improve both ongoing and future programming.

METHODS

The scope of the evaluation was agreed upon through discussion with the training organizers and advisory members and a design workshop. A mixed-methods approach was used; data collection was partly prospective and partly retrospective due to the rapid start of some of the training activities. Existing available data included: usage analytics, the content of questions posed during the webinar and community of practice, and participant feedback survey results. In addition, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of webinar participants.

RESULTS

The rapid development of this training was efficient and responsive. The training reached more than 3,000 participants across the 2 rounds, but the numbers varied substantially by location. Participants engaged well during the question period during each webinar, but the asynchronous community of practice was less utilized during the evaluation time frame. Many participants appreciated the African focus of the webinars and gave positive feedback on the practical and context-specific content.

CONCLUSIONS

The move toward online training provides an important opportunity to improve IPC across the African continent.

Online learning for WHO priority diseases with pandemic potential: evidence from existing courses and preparing for Disease X

BACKGROUND

OpenWHO is the open-access learning platform of the World Health Organization (WHO) that provides online learning for health emergencies with essential health knowledge for emergencies. There is emphasis for courses on severe emerging diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential to help frontline health workers prevent, control and respond to infectious diseases. This research addresses the question of how the existing OpenWHO online courses on infectious disease were used in the countries of disease occurrence and how to prepare for disease X, a novel or unknown pathogen with pandemic potential.

METHODS

OpenWHO collects self-declared demographic data from learners among which there is data on geographical location of learners. Data in infectious disease courses use on OpenWHO was collected and examined and additionally information languages used in the outbreak locations was collected.

RESULTS

For most diseases in focus the online learning materials were used in countries with burden of disease. This suggests the learning material production needs to be targeted for outbreak and epidemic events.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings inform the use of learning materials in disease outbreaks. Further, this use case data confirms learning providers need to add offerings in languages spoken in outbreak impacted areas.

The Use of Open-Source Online Course Content for Training in Public Health Emergencies: Mixed Methods Case Study of a COVID-19 Course Series for Health Professionals

BACKGROUND

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic generated an urgent need for credible and actionable information to guide public health responses. The massive open-source online course (MOOC) format may be a valuable path for disseminating timely and widely accessible training for health professionals during public health crises; however, the reach and effectiveness of health worker-directed online courses during the pandemic remain largely unexplored.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the use of an open-source online course series designed to provide critical COVID-19 knowledge to frontline health workers and public health professionals globally. The study investigated how open-source online educational content can be optimized to support knowledge sharing among health professionals in public health emergencies, particularly in resource-limited contexts.

METHODS

The study examined global course enrollment patterns (N=2185) and performed in-depth interviews with a purposive subsample of health professionals enrolled in the course series (N=12) to investigate the sharing of online content in pandemic responses. Interviewed learners were from Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, Thailand, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Inductive analysis and constant comparative methods were used to systematically code data and identify key themes emerging from interview data.

RESULTS

The analysis revealed that the online course content helped fill a critical gap in trustworthy COVID-19 information for pandemic responses and was shared through health worker professional and personal networks. Enrollment patterns and qualitative data illustrate how health professionals shared information within their professional networks. While learners shared the knowledge they gained from the course, they expressed a need for contextualized information to more effectively educate others in their networks and in their communities. Due to technological and logistical barriers, participants did not attempt to adapt the content to share with others.

CONCLUSIONS

This study illustrates that health professional networks can facilitate the sharing of online open-source health education content; however, to fully leverage potential benefits, additional support is required to facilitate the adaptation of course content to more effectively reach communities globally.

A perspective of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and public health

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have emerged as an innovative educational technology relevant to and affecting higher education, professional development, and lifelong learning. This paper introduces the principles of MOOCs and reviews the development of these platforms over time. We reflect upon the considerable investment by institutions to develop, deliver and promote such courses, particularly in public health. While open to interpretation, the inherent power, influence, and effectiveness of MOOCs is unquestionable. The potential contribution of MOOCs to public health education is immense, with almost universal reach and access. However, apart from research into participant engagement and knowledge, MOOC-related research and evaluation continue to lag with the rapid proliferation of these courses in response to emerging challenges, as seen with the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. This makes analyzing the contribution of MOOCs to public health education, health promotion and community programs challenging. This perspective article provides a robust rationale for the necessity of MOOCs and their utility in upskilling health professionals and the general public. It builds on current knowledge to comprehensively explore the factors influencing the development, and application of MOOCs.

Equity, Justice, and Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period: Considerations on Learning and Scholarly Performance in Brazilian Schools

Due to the imperative need for change in habits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has plagued the world, this exploratory study plans to analyze the directions taken in teaching activities in public and private schools of the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and their consequences for learning and scholarly performance concerning elementary and middle schools. In this way, this study verifies through an email questionnaire if there was equality, justice, and quality in teaching methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The descriptive analysis was carried out based on statistical calculations of quantitative and qualitative variables with various tests, whenever necessary, such as the chi-square, and when inconclusive, Fischer’s exact test, Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk, non-parametric Mann–Whitney (when the comparison between two independent groups was mandatory), ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis, and Friedman test. The results show that teachers tried to interact with students to overcome the problems faced during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Additionally, the study showed that there were differences in scholarly and learning performance, equality, and quality in the types of schools analyzed. This paper will help to fill the literature gap on the subject and will boost ongoing discussion on the inclusion of sustainable concepts in education.

Development of a simple and effective online training for health workers: results from a pilot in Nigeria

Background

Health workers (HWs) in Africa face challenges accessing and learning from existing online training opportunities. To address these challenges, we developed a modular, self-paced, mobile-ready and work-relevant online course covering foundational infection prevention and control (IPC) concepts. Here, we evaluate the first pilot of this course, conducted with HWs in Nigeria.

Methods

We used a learner-centered design and prototyping process to create a new approach to delivering online training for HWs. The resulting course comprised 10 self-paced modules optimized for use on mobile devices. Modules presented IPC vignettes in which learning was driven by short assessment questions with feedback. Learners were recruited by distributing a link to the training through Nigeria-based email lists, WhatsApp groups and similar networks of HWs, managers and allied professionals. The course was open to learners for 8 weeks. We tracked question responses and time on task with platform analytics and assessed learning gains with pre- and post-testing. Significance was evaluated with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and effect size was calculated using Cohen’s d.

Results

Three hundred seventy-two learners, with roles across the health system, enrolled in the training; 59% completed all 10 modules and earned a certificate. Baseline knowledge of foundational IPC concepts was low, as measured by pre-test scores (29%). Post-test scores were significantly higher at 54% (effect size 1.22, 95% confidence interval 1.00-1.44). Learning gains were significant both among learners with low pre-test scores and among those who scored higher on the pre-test. We used the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a common user experience metric, to evaluate the training. The NPS was + 62, which is slightly higher than published scores of other self-paced online learning experiences.

Conclusions

High completion rates, significant learning gains and positive feedback indicate that self-paced, mobile-ready training that emphasizes short, low-stakes assessment questions can be an effective, scalable way to train HWs who choose to enroll. Low pre-test scores suggest that there are gaps in IPC knowledge among this learner population.