RESUMO
Enhancing health-care workforce capacity in primary care settings is critical for delivering quality care to individuals with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Despite significant resources allocated to traditional face-to-face training methods, challenges persist in terms of scale, coverage, training material standards, and availability of trainers across different domains. Self-paced learning through an accessible platform with evaluation is a feasible option to overcome these challenges. Taking advantage of the technology and reach of the OpenWHO platform, the WHO South-East Asia Region developed four SEARO NCD PEN-HEARTS courses. Content was adapted from WHO guidance to low- or middle-income countries context. These courses cover NCD service planning, primary health-care interventions, diabetic foot care, and palliative care. The courses target primary health-care managers tasked with planning, training, implementing, and monitoring NCD health services. This is the first set of OpenWHO courses on NCD services for primary health-care launched on October 26, 2023. Courses were rolled out through WHO country offices in SEAR. WHO staff in HQ and regions were also informed. SEAnetNCD network which includes 10 institutions from eight countries of Southeast Asia, with more than 100 members were appraised of the courses through a web-based meeting. In addition, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp groups were used extensively. We observed a high level of interest and uptake for the courses. Within 100 days, the four courses had 18,250 enrolments with 12,090 unique users. More than 75% of users were in the 20-39 age group and covered diverse areas of work, ranging from health professionals, students, public health experts, national health ministries, and United Nations staff. Over 7,000 certificates have been awarded through graded assessments with average scores of 75%. Such courses of short duration focusing on specific skills and built with WHO guidance can be a solution to addressing gaps in capacity building.
Assuntos
Pessoal de Saúde , Doenças não Transmissíveis , Organização Mundial da Saúde , Humanos , Pessoal de Saúde/educação , Sudeste Asiático , Doenças não Transmissíveis/prevenção & controle , Atenção Primária à Saúde/organização & administração , Fortalecimento InstitucionalRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Keeping the health workforce and the public informed about the latest evolving health information during a health emergency is critical to preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks or other health emergencies. Having a well-informed, ready, willing, and skilled workforce and an informed public can help save lives, reduce diseases and suffering, and minimize socio-economic loss in affected communities and countries. Providing "just in time" support and opportunities for learning in health emergencies is much needed for capacity building. In this paper, 'learning intervention' refers to the provision of ad-hoc, focused, or personalized training sessions with the goal of preparing the health workers for emergencies or filling specific knowledge or skill gaps. We refer to 'training methods' as instructional design strategies used to teach someone the necessary knowledge and skills to perform a task. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review to map and better understand what learning interventions and training methods have been used in different types of health emergencies and by whom. Studies were identified using six databases (Pubmed/Medline, Embase, Hinari, WorldCat, CABI and Web of Science) and by consulting with experts. Characteristics of studies were mapped and displayed and major topic areas were identified. RESULTS: Of the 319 records that were included, contexts most frequently covered were COVID-19, disasters in general, Ebola and wars. Four prominent topic areas were identified: 1) Knowledge acquisition, 2) Emergency plans, 3) Impact of the learning intervention, and 4) Training methods. Much of the evidence was based on observational methods with few trials, which likely reflects the unique context of each health emergency. Evolution of methods was apparent, particularly in virtual learning. Learning during health emergencies appeared to improve knowledge, general management of the situation, quality of life of both trainers and affected population, satisfaction and clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION: This is the first scoping review to map the evidence, which serves as a first step in developing urgently needed global guidance to further improve the quality and reach of learning interventions and training methods in this context.
Assuntos
Emergências , Humanos , Pessoal de Saúde/educação , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Aprendizagem , SARS-CoV-2RESUMO
Background: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are increasingly used to educate health care workers during public health emergencies. In early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a series of MOOCs for COVID-19, introducing the disease and strategies to control its outbreak, with 6 courses specifically targeting health care workers as learners. In 2020, Stanford University also launched a MOOC designed to deliver accurate and timely education on COVID-19, equipping health care workers across the globe to provide health care safely and effectively to patients with the novel infectious disease. Although the use of MOOCs for just-in-time training has expanded during the pandemic, evidence is limited regarding the factors motivating health care workers to enroll in and complete courses, particularly in low-income countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Objective: This study seeks to gain insights on the characteristics and motivations of learners turning to MOOCs for just-in-time training, to provide evidence that can better inform MOOC design to meet the needs of health care workers. We examine data from learners in 1 Stanford University and 6 WHO COVID-19 courses to identify (1) the characteristics of health care workers completing the courses and (2) the factors motivating them to enroll. Methods: We analyze (1) course registration data of the 49,098 health care workers who completed the 7 focal courses and (2) survey responses from 6272 course completers. The survey asked respondents to rank their motivations for enrollment and share feedback about their learning experience. We use descriptive statistics to compare responses by health care profession and by World Bank country income classification. Results: Health care workers completed the focal courses from all regions of the world, with nearly one-third (14,159/49,098, 28.84%) practicing in LICs and LMICs. Survey data revealed a diverse range of professional roles among the learners, including physicians (2171/6272, 34.61%); nurses (1599/6272, 25.49%); and other health care professionals such as allied health professionals, community health workers, paramedics, and pharmacists (2502/6272, 39.89%). Across all health care professions, the primary motivation to enroll was for personal learning to improve clinical practice. Continuing education credit was also an important motivator, particularly for nonphysicians and learners in LICs and LMICs. Course cost (3423/6272, 54.58%) and certification (4238/6272, 67.57%) were also important to a majority of learners. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that a diverse range of health care professionals accessed MOOCs for just-in-time training during a public health emergency. Although all health care workers were motivated to improve their clinical practice, different factors were influential across professions and locations. These factors should be considered in MOOC design to meet the needs of health care workers, particularly those in lower-resource settings where alternative avenues for training may be limited.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Pessoal de Saúde , Motivação , Humanos , Pessoal de Saúde/educação , Educação a Distância/métodos , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Masculino , Feminino , Adulto , Saúde Pública/educação , Pandemias , EmergênciasRESUMO
The Leadership in Emergencies learning programme, launched in 2019, was designed to strengthen the competencies of World Health Organization (WHO) and Member State staff in teamwork, decision-making and communication, key skills required to lead effectively in emergencies. While the programme was initially used to train 43 staff in a workshop setting, the COVID-19 pandemic required a new remote approach. An online learning environment was developed using a variety of digital tools including WHO's open learning platform, OpenWHO.org. The strategic use of these technologies enabled WHO to dramatically expand access to the programme for personnel responding to health emergencies in fragile contexts and increase participation among key groups that were previously underserved.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Humanos , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Emergências , Pandemias , Pessoal de Saúde , ComunicaçãoRESUMO
World Health Organization's (WHO) emergency learning platform OpenWHO provided by Hasso Plattner Institut (HPI) delivered online learning in real-time and in multiple languages during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge was to move from manual transcription and translation to automated to increase the speed and quantity of materials and languages available. TransPipe tool was introduced to facilitate this task. We describe the TransPipe development, analyze its functioning and report key results achieved. TransPipe successfully connects existing services and provides a suitable workflow to create and maintain video subtitles in different languages. By the end of 2022, the tool transcribed nearly 4,700 minutes of video content and translated 1,050,700 characters of video subtitles. Automated transcription and translation have enormous potential as a public health learning tool, allowing the near-simultaneous availability of video subtitles on OpenWHO in many languages, thus improving the usability of the learning materials in multiple languages for wider audiences.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Multilinguismo , Humanos , Pandemias , Idioma , TraduçãoRESUMO
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.
RESUMO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) has developed a comprehensive capacity devel-opment programme to support the successful implementation of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response 3rd edition Technical Guidelines (IDSR). As part of the learning program, a series of asyn-chronous online courses are offered on OpenWHO in English, French and Portuguese. This paper describes the use of five IDSR online courses and reports on feedback received from learners on Course 1 in the English series. An online learner survey was developed, and a descriptive analysis was conducted. This paper also reports on use related empirical metadata from the OpenWHO platform. Overall, learners (97%-n/N) of Course 1 IDSR English series indicated a positive perception toward their online learning experience because of the quality of course content, its organization, ease of use and relevance to their workplace needs. In addition, 88% (n/N) of learners reported that they had used their acquired knowledge at least sometimes and 54.4% (n/N) had shared their learning with others. Lastly, the quiz analyses showed an average of right answers of 78.97% for quiz 1 and 69.94% for quiz 2. Online learning is an essential component of a blended capacity development programme and provides cost effective, equitable and impactful learning. Learners who have a learning goal and find their needs met in courses tend to show more satisfaction and motivation to share their learning.
RESUMO
The WHO Health Emergencies Programme combined online tools with adult learning techniques to develop an innovative online leadership course. A combination of self-paced learning and online classes were used to deliver skills-based leadership training tailored to public health staff working in emergency response roles. Although using an online approach was considered a temporary solution to counter travel restrictions during the pandemic, the advantages have challenged preconceptions that effective learning, networking and peer exchange for leadership can only be achieved through face-to-face learning.
Assuntos
Liderança , Pandemias , Adulto , Humanos , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
This paper provides practitioner and academic insights into the importance of examining non-technical skills in a multiteam system emergency response. The case of public health professionals is highlighted, illustrated with unique qualitative field data which focused upon the use of non-technical skills at a meso level of analysis. Results reflected the importance of context upon the multiteam system and highlighted seven non-technical skills used by public health professionals to support an effective response. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are noted for this hard to access professional group, located within emerging advances in the scientific inquiry of complex and increasingly evident, multi-team systems.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: OpenWHO provides open-access, online, free and real-time learning responses to health emergencies, which includes capacitating healthcare providers, first liners, medical students and even the general public. During the pandemic and to date, an additional 40 courses for COVID-19 response have led to a massive increase in the number of learners and a change in user's trends. This paper presents initial findings on enrollment trends, use and completion rates of health emergency courses offered on OpenWHO. METHODS: The enrolment data statistics were drawn from OpenWHO's built-in reporting system, which tracks learners' enrolments, completion rates, demographics and other key course-related data, This information was collected from the beginning of the OpenWHO launch in 2017 up until October 2021. RESULTS: Average course completion rate on OpenWHO including all courses and languages was equal to 45.9%. Nearly half (46.4%) of all OpenWHO learners have enrolled in at least 2 courses and 71 000 superusers have completed at least 10 courses on the platform. CONCLUSION: WHO's learning platform during the pandemic registered record high completion rates and repeat learners enrollment. This highlights the massive impact of the OpenWHO online learning platform for health emergencies and the tangible knowledge transfer and access to health literacy.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Educação Médica/métodos , Pessoal de Saúde/educação , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Educação Médica/tendências , Emergências , Letramento em Saúde/tendências , Humanos , Conhecimento , Pandemias , Estudantes de Medicina , Transferência de Experiência , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
Focus group discussions (FGDs) are widely used to obtain qualitative data from purposely selected groups of people. This paper describes how the Learning and Capacity Development (LCD) unit of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) digitalized FGDs to engage with WHO staff from around the world, to listen, share, and collect their feedback in the development of a WHO learning framework. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of local lockdowns and travel restrictions resulted in the wide use of digital platforms, such as Zoom, for employee communications and collaboration capable of reaching employees wherever they are working. The LCD/WHE team drew upon the experience of WHO colleagues from human resources, country, and regional offices to set up and hold FGDs in 6 languages with participants from all WHO regions. Building on the findings of a 2019 WHO staff survey, which was part of a comprehensive, organization-wide career development initiative, the digitalized FGDs allowed for the exchange of substantive feedback, novel ideas, and alignment, connecting across different geographies, disciplines, and levels of seniority. As a result, FGDs can be successfully conducted online, but it is essential to remove barriers to participation by adopting a multilingual and flexible approach in multinational and international organizations such as the WHO.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , COVID-19/prevenção & controle , Controle de Doenças Transmissíveis , Grupos Focais , Humanos , Pandemias/prevenção & controle , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
In pursuit of equitable access to emergency-related knowledge, the World Health Organization (WHO) translates COVID-19 and other infectious disease courses into multiple languages on its open-access online learning platform OpenWHO.org. Languages spoken by vulnerable or underserved populations in low- and middle-income countries and in outbreak-prone and affected areas are prioritized. Accessing learning in preferred languages enhances uptake and comprehension. In this study, we assess and compare the initial enrollment levels and global reach of these multilingual courses. On average, OpenWHO's 38 COVID-19 courses have each been translated into 4.8 languages. The platform hosts courses in 55 different languages with 10.4 million words translated. The findings identify which available languages were most utilized for COVID-19 learning to inform course production and outreach strategies. Languages were used differently across geographic regions, calling for localized learning offerings. A streamlined multilingual publishing scheme, ensuring quick and effective delivery of diverse languages, is critical to achieving greater equity of access to knowledge.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Multilinguismo , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2 , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
The ability of assessing any type of linguistic complexity of any given contents could potentially improve knowledge reproduction, especially tacit knowledge which can be expensive during a pandemic. In this paper, we develop a simple and crosslinguistic model of complexity which considers formal accounts on the study of linguistic systems, but can be easily implemented by non-linguists' groups, e.g., communication experts and policymakers. To test our model, we conduct a study on a corpus extracted from the World Health Organization (WHO)'s emergency learning platform in 6 languages. Data extracted from open-access encyclopaedic entries act as control groups. The results show that the measurements adopted signal a trend for a minimization of complexity and can be exploited as features for (automatic) text classification.
Assuntos
Multilinguismo , Idioma , Linguística , Pandemias , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
BACKGROUND: To prepare key stakeholders for the global COVID-19 vaccination rollout, the World Health Organization and partners developed online vaccination training packages. The online course was launched in December 2020 on the OpenWHO learning platform. This paper presents the findings of an evaluation of this course. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this evaluation was to provide insights into user experiences and challenges, measure the impact of the course in terms of knowledge gained, and anticipate potential interest in future online vaccination courses. METHODS: The primary source of data was the anonymized information on course participants, enrollment, completion, and scores from the OpenWHO platform's statistical data and metric reporting system. Data from the OpenWHO platform were analyzed from the opening of the courses in mid-December 2020 to mid-April 2021. In addition, a learner feedback survey was sent by email to all course participants to complete within a 3-week period (March 19 to April 9, 2021). The survey was designed to determine the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the training packages and to understand barriers to access. RESULTS: During the study period, 53,593 learners enrolled in the course. Of them, 30,034 (56.0%) completed the course, which is substantially higher than the industry benchmark of 5%-10% for a massive open online course (MOOC). Overall, learners averaged 76.5% on the prequiz compared to 85% on the postquiz, resulting in an increase in average score of 9%. A total of 2019 learners from the course participated in the survey. Nearly 98% (n=1647 fully agree, n=308 somewhat agree; N=1986 survey respondents excluding missing values) of respondents fully or somewhat agreed that they had more confidence in their ability to support COVID-19 vaccination following completion of this course. CONCLUSIONS: The online vaccine training was well received by the target audience, with a measurable impact on knowledge gained. The key benefits of online training were the convenience, self-paced nature, access to downloadable material, and ability to replay material, as well as an increased ability to concentrate. Online training was identified as a timely, cost-effective way of delivering essential training to a large number of people to prepare for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Vacinas contra COVID-19 , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2 , Inquéritos e Questionários , VacinaçãoRESUMO
OpenWHO provides open access, online, free and real time learning responses to health emergencies. Before the pandemic, courses on 18 diseases were provided. The increase to 38 courses in response to COVID-19 have led to a massive increase in the number of new learners. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic affected learners' trends. This paper presents initial findings of changes perceived in the use and user groups' attendance to the World Health Organization's (WHO) health emergency learning platform OpenWHO. Enrolment statistics were based on data collected in December 2019 and March 2021. A descriptive analysis was conducted to explore changes in the usage pattern of the platform. Several user characteristics shifted between before and during the pandemic. More women, younger and older learners joined the learning during the pandemic. Public health education leaned toward a more equitable reach including previously underrepresented groups.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Humanos , Pandemias , SARS-CoV-2 , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
Reproduction of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge can be expensive during a pandemic. One of the most common causes is the reduced information accessibility during the translation process. Having the ability to assess the linguistic complexity of any given contents could potentially improve knowledge reproduction. Authors conduct two cross-linguistic studies on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s emergency learning platform to assess the linguistic complexity of two online courses in 10 languages. Morpho-syntactically annotated treebanks, unannotated materials from Wikipedia and language-specific corpora are set as control groups. Preliminary findings reveal a clear reduced complexity of learning contents in the most candidate languages while retaining the maximum amount of information. Creating a baseline study on low-resourced languages on the learning genre could be potentially useful for measuring impact of normative products at country and local level.
Assuntos
Linguística , Multilinguismo , Idioma , Pandemias , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
Accessibility, multilingualism and real-time knowledge transfer are the tenets of the OpenWHO learning platform. A descriptive analysis was conducted using anonymised statistical datasets retrieved from the OpenWHO reporting system to understand global use trends. When examining OpenWHO use in the areas with the highest burden of COVID-19 cases, a strong correlation was identified between the burden of COVID-19 and OpenWHO user activity. Further, health professionals are the top users of COVID-19 materials. The massive demand for OpenWHO courses confirms the need for real-time learning materials in accessible, multilingual formats during a pandemic. Learning is a global public good and is an essential component of the response to health emergencies.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Educação a Distância , Humanos , Pandemias/prevenção & controle , SARS-CoV-2 , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the first web-based learning course on COVID-19 on January 26, 2020, four days before the director general of the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO is expanding access to web-based learning for COVID-19 through its open-learning platform for health emergencies, OpenWHO. Throughout the pandemic, OpenWHO has continued to publish learning offerings based on the WHO's emerging evidence-based knowledge for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. This study presents the various findings derived from the analysis of the performance of the OpenWHO platform during the pandemic, along with the core benefits of massive web-based learning formats.
Assuntos
COVID-19/prevenção & controle , Educação a Distância , Pandemias/prevenção & controle , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Guias como Assunto , Humanos , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
From 26 January - 21 April 2020, 9 online courses for COVID-19 were published on OpenWHO.org. The courses are available in 18 different languages, totalling 53 learning resources and more than 1.5 million course enrolments. This paper analyses key trends in the growth of enrolments in these resources. The number of enrolments increased significantly between 26 January and 21 April, with distinct spikes in growth preceded by important global milestones in the timeline of the outbreak. The surge in users demonstrates that the platform is serving as a source of digitized learning for COVID-19, helping meet the broad demand for outbreak-related information.
Assuntos
Betacoronavirus , Infecções por Coronavirus , Educação a Distância , Pandemias , Pneumonia Viral , COVID-19 , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2 , Organização Mundial da SaúdeRESUMO
This poster presents the COVID-19 online learning response by the World Health Organization's (WHO) OpenWHO learning platform for health emergencies. Platform use shifted during the pandemic from being the highest in the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean regions to the American and European regions. The largest traffic channels were search engines, social media and WHO websites.