Building global capacity for COVID-19 vaccination through interactive virtual learning

Abstract

Background To support the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization and its partners developed an interactive virtual learning initiative through which vaccination stakeholders could receive the latest guidance, ask questions, and share their experiences. This initiative, implemented between 9 February 2021 and 15 June 2021, included virtual engagement between technical experts and participants during a 15-session interactive webinar series as well as web and text-messaging discussions in English and French. Methods This article uses a mixed-methods approach to analyze survey data collected following each webinar and a post-series survey conducted after the series had concluded. Participant data were tracked for each session, and feedback surveys were conducted after each session to gauge experience quality and content usability. Chi-square tests were used to compare results across professions (health workers, public health practitioners, and others). Results The COVID-19 Vaccination: Building Global Capacity webinar series reached participants in 179 countries or 93% of the WHO Member States; 75% of participants were from low- and middle-income countries. More than 60% of participants reported using the resources provided during the sessions, and 47% reported sharing these resources with colleagues. More than 79% of participants stated that this initiative significantly improved their confidence in preparing for and rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations; an additional 20% stated that the initiative “somewhat” improved their confidence. In the post-series survey, 70% of participants reported that they will “definitely use” the knowledge derived from this learning series in their work; an additional 20% will “probably use” and 9% would “possibly use” this knowledge in their work. Conclusion The COVID-19 Vaccination: Building Global Capacity learning initiative used a digital model of dynamic, interactive learning at scale. The initiative enhanced WHO’s ability to disseminate knowledge, provide normative guidance, and share best practices to COVID-19 vaccination stakeholders in real time. This approach allowed WHO to hear the information needs of stakeholders and respond by developing guidance, tools, and training to support COVID-19 vaccine introduction. WHO and its partners can learn from this capacity-building experience and apply best practices for digital interactive learning to other health programs moving forward.

Sharing lessons learned from COVID-19 vaccine introductions: a global community forum for countries

“…While Project ECHO had prior experience establishing virtual communities of practice related to clinical medicine topics (16)(17)(18), this method for real-time peer-topeer virtual learning was first used for the global immunization community during the pandemic. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the mini-cPIE clinic series, WHO and Project ECHO collaborated on the ACT Accelerator COVID-19 initiatives (19), and a second series that convened partners and practitioners to build global capacity in preparation for COVID-19 vaccination (14). Several studies have shown that virtual training can help equip healthcare professionals with knowledge and skills for effective vaccination deployment during critical times of the COVID-19 pandemic (20,21).…”

“…This model supports low-dose, high-frequency, virtual casebased learning to promote timely peer-to-peer information sharing and collaborative problem solving. This learning approach has proved to be instrumental in improving health outcomes during COVID-19, in other public health emergency responses and as related to general continuing health professional education (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19).…”

Online capacity building for the health workforce: the case of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response for the African region

“…Synchronous webinars for IDSR capacity development programme consists of the virtual classrooms and remote communities of practice. The ECHO learning model ( 7 ) is an example of a virtual community of practice ( 8 ); it is a case-based low dose, high frequency educational intervention that strengthens knowledge and clinical and public-health practice through a combination of 1) video-conferencing to bridge geography and connect learners, and 2) a case-based virtual community of practice, in order to provide access to equitable, public health knowledge and collaborative peer-to-peer and novice-to-expert problem solving to underserved people globally.…”

“…Research on training effectiveness concludes that major indicators to learner outcomes and satisfaction are social presence, teaching presence, cognitive presence and quality of ( 4 , 9 , 13 ). Most important, the increased self-efficacy as a result of training has been found to be an important rationale for training effectiveness ( 7 ). Cognitive presence, according to ( 14 ), is ‘the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse in a critical community of inquiry’ ( 14 ).…”

Enhancing Hepatitis B Care Competency through Project ECHO: A Program Evaluation

“…The Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO), known as Project ECHO, is an educational model designed to connect primary care providers (PCP) which include physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants with experts on a specific topic [9]. This model, developed by the University of New Mexico, has successfully been adopted for diseases like hepatitis C, HIV, and many others [10][11][12][13][14]. This article seeks to evaluate the hepatitis B Project ECHO after two full years of provider training to understand if this model can be expanded upon and sustained to improve provider attendee knowledge and competency surrounding hepatitis B management.…”