Now Available for Health Workers: The WHO Academy’s COVID-19 Mobile Learning App

The WHO Academy’s mobile learning app was developed specifically for health workers and is designed to enable them to expand their life-saving skills to battle COVID-19.

With content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, the app delivers access to a wealth of COVID-19 knowledge resources developed by WHO, including up-to-the-minute guidance, tools, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for afflicted patients and in protecting themselves as they do their critical work.

The app can be found via direct link to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or by searching “WHO Academy” in the stores.

WHO Academy learning strategy process: a call for ideas // New courses for COVID-19 available

The World Health Organization invites you to contribute your Big Idea to shape the future of training and learning in achieving better health for all.

The WHO Academy, a lifelong learning centre scheduled to launch next year, is working to scale up learning for impact through digital and face-to-face courses, reaching millions of health workers and others worldwide through the latest technologies and advancements in learning science.

As a key part of this effort, we are working with experts and practitioners to develop a global learning strategy that will shape the future of WHO’s approach to training and learning for achieving health goals and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals.

As part of a broader consultation process with experts in health, learning and education, and digital technologies, we would now like to invite everyone with an interest in this topic to join in this endeavor by contributing their ideas to the WHO’s learning strategy.

Accordingly, we have established a Call for Ideas so that anyone can share their Big Idea on how to enhance the quality and impact of training and lifelong learning approaches in health.

The submission form is available in English, French and Spanish. Just click on the relevant link below, select your language at the top of the page and submit your idea or approach in 500 words or less.

Share your Big Idea here.

We will use the responses we receive to develop WHO’s global learning strategy to ensure that all who are involved in the world’s health and social-care systems have ample opportunities to strengthen the competencies they need to save lives and improve health outcomes in their communities.

The closing date for the first round of ideas is 8th June 2020.

New courses for COVID-19 available

The following resources for COVID-19 have been launched this week:

  • How to put on and remove PPE for COVID-19 in Albanian and Macedonian
  • SARI treatment facility design in French
  • Clinical care SARI in Macedonian
  • Country preparedness and response in Spanish
  • Health and safety briefing for respiratory diseases – ePROTECT in Vietnamese

New certificates available

Participants can now gain a Record of Achievement if they score 80% or higher on the assessments in the following courses:

Videos now available

Videos have recently been added to the country preparedness and response course in Russian. More languages to follow.

Updates to course content

Please note that the following courses are currently being revised to reflect updates to the technical content. You will be notified once the updated materials are available:

  • IPC for COVID-19
  • Clinical care SARI

In addition, modules B1, B2 and D of the general introduction to emerging respiratory viruses, including novel coronaviruses, have been recently updated and the updates are currently being rolled-out across all language versions of the course. You will be kept up to date as this process progresses.

Complete list of COVID-19 learning resources

We are pleased to announce that OpenWHO now has 78 resources for COVID-19 spread across 26 languages. In summary, OpenWHO currently offers courses covering the following topics and languages to support the response to COVID-19:

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

How can I protect myself from COVID-19?

In February, OpenWHO released a short animated video that explains 6 ways a person can protect themselves and others from COVID-19:

  1. Wash hands regularly using soap and water or an alcohol rub if hands are not visibly dirty.
  2. Practice respiratory hygiene by covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a flexed elbow or tissue. Throw the tissue into a closed bin afterwards and wash your hands.
  3. Maintain social distancing - at least 1 metre (3 feet).
  4. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
  5. Use masks and personal protective equipment if you are sick, when caring for someone who is sick or in a healthcare setting.
  6. Stay home if you are unwell, but if you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care.

You can watch the video and enrol in the eProtect course for respiratory infections here. The course is also available in the following languages: français, Bahasa Indonesia, русский, Português, 中文, Español, العربية and Tiếng Việt.

The complete list of OpenWHO's resources for COVID-19 can be found here.

New courses and languages available

We are pleased to announce three new courses which have recently become available on OpenWHO:

  • Standard precautions: Waste management: In this course, you will learn about the different categories of waste and the process for waste management. Health care waste includes all waste generated by health, research and laboratory facilities in the course of providing health care services. Health care waste in a facility should be managed from the point of generation to final disposal and removal.
  • Tobacco product regulation: Basic handbook: Although tobacco use is a major public health problem, tobacco products are one of the few openly available consumer products that are virtually unregulated in many countries for contents, emissions and design features. In this three-part series, you will first review the basics of tobacco product regulation and international guidance (Sections 1-2), steps to assessing regulatory needs and capacity and regulatory considerations (Sections 3-4), and finally, implementation and potential challenges, novel, new and modified tobacco or related products, and testing and disclosure (Sections 5-7).
  • Tobacco product regulation: Building laboratory testing capacity: In recent years, health authorities have become increasingly interested in the potential of tobacco product regulation to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with tobacco use. This course provides practical, stepwise approaches to implementing tobacco testing to improve tobacco product regulation. Such guidance is relevant to a wide range of countries in various settings, even those with inadequate resources to establish a testing facility.

COVID-19 resources now available in 25 languages!

OpenWHO now has a total of 72 resources for COVID-19 spread across 25 languages, the newest being Amharic, Hausa, Odia and Swahili. Since last Thursday the 7th, 9 new language versions have been added:

Complete list of COVID-19 learning resources

In summary, OpenWHO currently offers courses covering the following topics and languages to support the response to COVID-19:

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

WHO ‘No Tobacco’ Unit (TFI) of Health Promotion Department announces launch of courses on tobacco product regulation

The WHO ‘No Tobacco’ Unit (TFI) of the Health Promotion Department is pleased to announce the launch of two online courses on tobacco product regulation on OpenWHO. Tobacco Product Regulation in simple terms, is what goes into the product and what comes out during use, which in technical terms are referred to as the contents (in) and emissions (out) of tobacco products.

Tobacco products kill half of its users, so regulation of these products is of critical importance to reduce the demand for tobacco and protect public health, especially young people.

The online courses provide practical guidance on tobacco product regulation and will be useful to a wide range of audiences, including policymakers, regulators, health authorities, tobacco control advocates, researchers and anyone interested in tobacco product regulation. Further, the courses provide clear guidance on tobacco product regulation in line with Articles 9 and 10 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The teaser video, which elegantly introduces the courses, is available for viewing here.

The courses are based on WHO’s tobacco product regulation handbooks, The Basics of Tobacco Product Regulation and Building Laboratory Testing Capacity and further information on the courses is provided below:

  • Course 1, on the Basics of Tobacco Product Regulation, is a basic reference document for regulators/health authorities in any country and other interested parties seeking to monitor, evaluate and regulate tobacco products. It is delivered by Dr Ghazi Zaatari, Chair of the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation and will take approximately 3 hours to complete.
  • Course 2, on Building Laboratory Testing Capacity, provides practical, stepwise approaches to implementing tobacco testing and comprehensible information on how to test tobacco products, what products to test, and how to use testing data in a meaningful way to support regulation. It also provides a step-by-step guide to developing a testing laboratory, using an existing internal laboratory, contracting an external laboratory, and making use of the available support mechanisms both within WHO and externally. The course is delivered by Dr Nuan Ping Cheah, Chair of the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network and will take approximately 2 hours to complete.

Both courses are a call to countries to prioritize and commit resources to strengthen tobacco regulation capacity. Failure to regulate tobacco products represents a missed opportunity, as tobacco product regulation is a valuable tool that complements other tried and tested tobacco control interventions, as part of a comprehensive tobacco control programme.

A certificate of achievement is issued for each course to those who have completed the materials and earned at least 80% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.

We hope you will find these resources useful. Further guidance is available across the three levels of WHO. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require further information, technical advice or have questions.

OpenWHO expands COVID-19 IPC training while continuing to produce courses on diverse health topics

In its efforts to support the essential work of frontline responders, OpenWHO has published several courses on different Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) topics.

More than a month before the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, OpenWHO launched the introductory course Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control which included a module with IPC guidance. Clinical Care Severe Acute Respiratory Infection and ePROTECT Respiratory Infections soon followed with more detailed technical guidance. OpenWHO then published a compilation of IPC resources in the course Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). To reach as many learners as possible, OpenWHO translated these course materials into the official UN languages and a range of national languages.

Since the declaration of the pandemic, OpenWHO has continued to provide learners with the most up-to-date WHO IPC guidance through actively revising current courses and adding a video guide on COVID-19: How to put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as two Standard precaution modules on Hand hygiene and Waste management.

In addition to IPC resources, OpenWHO also continues to support training needs on other health topics, offering two new courses on Tobacco product regulation: Basic handbook and Building laboratory testing capacity, as well as on Drug-resistant tuberculosis: how to interpret rapid molecular test results.

With more than 2.5 million course enrolments, OpenWHO strives to expand access to essential WHO guidance in countries around the world.

OpenWHO contributes to COVID-19 research

The Journal of Medical Internet Research published a peer-reviewed article authored by the OpenWHO team: Global Reach of an Online COVID-19 Course in Multiple Languages on OpenWHO in the First Quarter of 2020: Analysis of Platform Use Data.

The aim of the paper was to investigate the geographic reach of different language courses accessed by a worldwide audience seeking information on COVID-19. It concluded that the online resources addressed a worldwide learning need by providing WHO’s technical guidance packaged in simple formats for access and use.

Director-General speech highlights OpenWHO

In a speech on 15 April, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized WHO's commitment to training millions to fight the pandemic using OpenWHO:

"WHO is getting on with the job.

We are continuing to study this virus every moment of every day, we are learning from many countries about what works, and we are sharing that information with the world.

There are more than 1.5 million enrolments in WHO’s online courses through OpenWHO.org, and we will continue to expand this platform to train many more millions so we can fight COVID effectively.

Today we launched a new course for health workers on how to put on and remove personal protective equipment.

Every day we bring together thousands of clinicians, epidemiologists, educators, researchers, lab technicians, infection prevention specialists and others to exchange knowledge on COVID-19."

New courses and languages available

We are pleased to announce three new courses which have recently become available on OpenWHO:

COVID-19 resources available in more languages

The platform now has a total of 61 resources for COVID-19 spread across 21 languages, the newest being Bengali, Polish and Urdu, with many more in the pipeline. The most recent translations include:

New certificates available

Participants can now gain a Record of Achievement if they score 80% or higher on the assessments in the following courses:

Complete list of COVID-19 learning resources

In summary, OpenWHO currently offers courses covering the following topics and languages to support the response to COVID-19:

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

Drug-resistant tuberculosis: how to interpret rapid molecular test results

We are pleased to announce that a new free course on the interpretation of results of selected WHO-endorsed rapid molecular tests for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/multi-drug-resistant-tb.

Addressing DR-TB is a global priority to accelerate progress towards the elimination of TB. In many countries, patients with DR-TB are either not diagnosed at all or receive a delayed diagnosis, leading to further spread and increased severity of the disease. WHO-endorsed molecular techniques should be adopted more widely to improve DR-TB detection and should be complemented with phenotypic alternatives where necessary.

By the end of this course, which provides a unique combination of practical guidance and expert advice, participants should have improved their ability to interpret results for selected WHO-recommended rapid molecular tests for the diagnosis of DR-TB in line with the latest WHO guidelines.

The course consists of four modules, which last approximately two hours, and accompanying materials, which are expected to require three hours. Participants who answer at least 80% of the online test questions correctly will receive a certificate of participation.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training

Responding to COVID-19: New courses and languages available

OpenWHO is pleased to share 3 brand new courses that were recently launched to support the response to COVID-19:

  • Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Treatment Facility Design: This training package has been developed to meet the operational needs emerging with the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a thorough understanding of the principles driving the design process of COVID-19 screening areas for health care facilities, community facilities and SARI treatment centres, including how to repurpose an existing building into a SARI treatment centre. (Also available in Arabic and Portuguese)
  • Introduction to Go.Data – Field data collection, chains of transmission and contact follow-up: Go.Data is a field data collection platform focusing on case data (including lab, hospitalization and other variables though case investigation form) and contact data (including contact follow-up). This briefing package provides an orientation to the purpose, benefits and utilization of Go.Data, consisting of 7 modules with a narrated walkthrough of the key features of the Go.Data web-based platform and mobile application.
  • COVID-19: How to put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE): This is a guide for health care workers involved in patient care activities in a health care setting. It aims to show the type of personal protective equipment or PPE needed to correctly protect oneself.

More languages available

In addition to the new courses, OpenWHO is continuing to work with WHO regional and country offices, educational entities and volunteers to produce COVID-19 resources in as many languages as possible to help localize the response.

The platform now has a total of 52 resources for COVID-19 spread across 18 languages, with many more in the pipeline. The most recent translations include:

New certificates available

Many of the COVID-19 courses are now offering a Confirmation of Participation for participants who complete the specified amount of course material: ePROTECT Respiratory Infections, IPC for COVID-19, Clinical Care SARI, SARI Treatment Facility Design and Introduction to Go.Data.

In addition, the introductory COVID-19 course and the country preparedness and response course now offer a Record of Achievement for participants who score 80% or higher on course assessments.

Complete list of COVID-19 learning resources

In summary, OpenWHO currently offers courses covering the following topics and languages to support the response to COVID-19:

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

New national languages channel

Everyone has the right to access life-saving knowledge and OpenWHO is continuing to work with partners to make its resources available in as many languages as possible. In March, the platform launched a new learning channel for COVID-19 courses in national languages, in addition to its channel for courses in the 6 official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). 

Courses on the national languages channel are the product of collaboration with WHO Country Offices, public health institutes and educational entities who have offered voluntary translation support to help localize the response efforts. On 23 March, OpenWHO launched its introductory COVID-19 video in Indian sign language, which is the first sign language resource on the platform. The channel also hosts trainings in Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian, Turkish and Vietnamese, with additional resources added every week.

Enrolments skyrocket in Spanish courses

Spanish has now surpassed English as the most popular language for 2 COVID-19 courses, marking a new milestone for OpenWHO. The surge in enrolments is the product of collaboration with PAHO’s Virtual Campus for Public Health on course translation and dissemination.

The Spanish introductory course to COVID-19 has more than 132 000 enrolments on OpenWHO with another 87 000 enrolments in the same course hosted on the PAHO Virtual Campus. The Spanish Infection Prevention and Control course for COVID-19 has more than 127 000 enrolments with 22 000 more on PAHO’s platform.

In the last week, the ePROTECT health and safety course was also launched in Spanish on OpenWHO and the PAHO Virtual Campus.

OpenWHO launches first sign language resource

The OpenWHO team is proud to share our introductory video on COVID-19 in Indian sign language!

This video is the latest result of collaboration with teams around the globe who have generously offered to translate WHO's COVID-19 learning materials into additional languages to reach as many people as possible. With the addition of Indian sign language, the introductory video is now available in 12 languages – including all six WHO official languages, as well as Hindi, Macedonian, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian and Turkish. The course can be accessed here: https://openwho.org/courses/intro-to-COVID-19-indian-sign-language

Hoping to count you among the participants, we wish you a successful training!

New course materials and languages now available

We are pleased to announce that new courses, new course materials as well as new language versions of courses related to the COVID-19 outbreak have been released on OpenWHO.

In the English course Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control:

  • A new course video has been added to "Module B2: Laboratory Investigations" which can be accessed by navigating to the “Learnings” tab on the course navigation toolbar.

Language versions of this course have been released in:

The course Clinical Care Severe Acute Respiratory Infection is now available in:

The course Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is now available in:

The course ePROTECT Respiratory Infections is now available in:

The course COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support country preparedness and response is now available in English, but additional language versions are coming soon in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Russian, Italian.

In the midst of the outbreak, we are also pleased to announce that new materials on other health topics have been published:

  • Introduction to Poliomyelitis and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in English
  • Variole du singe: introduction (Monkeypox: Introduction) in French

Hoping to count you among the participants, we wish you a successful training!

Crowd-sourcing across the globe - COVID-19 courses produced in over a dozen national languages

OpenWHO’s learning resources for COVID-19 have been partially or fully translated into 18 national languages. The spontaneous translation offers have emerged from every continent of the world, with WHO Country Offices, public health institutes and education entities providing translation support, all seeking to provide voluntary support to help localize the response efforts.

More than 180 000 users have accessed the resources on OpenWHO.org, with 55 000 of those accessing the materials in a language other than English.

OpenWHO's introductory COVID-19 course has been translated into more national languages than any other course on the platform. From the original English, the course materials have been fully or partially translated into 15 languages: Full courses are available in all official UN languages (Arabic, French, Russian, Chinese and Spanish) along with Portuguese (Brazilian and European Portuguese), Turkish and Persian. Sections of the learning materials have been translated in Farsi, Italian, Mongolian, Macedonian, Sinhala, Tamil and Vietnamese.

In addition to the above languages, materials for other COVID-19 courses, including "Infection Prevention and Control for COVID-19" and "eProtect: Respiratory Infections" have been launched on the platform in Japanese and Indonesian. Translation of OpenWHO’s COVID-19 materials into Hindi will also be initiated shortly. The fully translated courses have been verified by WHO Country Offices or WHO technical personnel around the world, enforcing the WHO quality.

“Monkeypox: Introduction” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “Monkeypox: Introduction” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/monkeypox-introduction.

Monkeypox is an emerging infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans from infected animals, most commonly rodents. It can be spread to other people but person-to-person transmission alone cannot easily sustain an outbreak.

The clinical presentation is similar to that seen in the past with smallpox but less severe. Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980; however, monkeypox still occurs sporadically in parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. Typically, case fatality in monkeypox outbreaks has been 1-10% but with appropriate care, most patients will recover.

This course provides a general introduction to monkeypox and is intended for health personnel responsible for prevention and control of monkeypox.

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

  • understand the emergence of monkeypox;
  • describe routes of transmission;
  • list signs and symptoms;
  • clinically identify monkeypox, chickenpox, and measles;
  • describe laboratory specimens and tests; and
  • discuss prevention and control strategies.

The course will take approximately 1 hour to finish.

Hoping to count you among the participants, we wish you a successful training!

Reboot Health & Wellbeing – Keeping Young People Safe

Are you passionate about young people’s health? Do you have innovative ideas & solutions for how to keep them safe?

Then please submit your innovation solutions today to #RebootHealthChallenge!

The World Health Organization (WHO), supported by the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (UN-OICT) and UNAIDS challenge you to address one of the urgent health challenges for the next decade: Reboot Health & Wellbeing – Keeping Young People Safe

Post your ideas today! https://ideas.unite.un.org/reboothealth/Page/Home

Who can participate? Individuals and groups of up to four (4) individuals. No age restrictions.

What do you need to submit?

  • apps or games
  • wearables, digital technologies, tools or platforms, products
  • the creation or improvement of products, services, processes
  • new approaches to collaboration or communication, or new ways of engaging young people and/or other stakeholders
  • policy reform proposals

Submissions are allowed in any of the six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and must be your original work.

Timeline

  • 4 March 2020: entry into the challenge starts. The whole world is invited to ‘like’ and comment on their favorite ideas as long as the challenge is open.
  • 4 March - 15 April 2020: challenge runs online. Public review and comments enabled.
  • 15 April 2020 at 11:59 PM: deadline for submission of solutions.
  • 15 April 2020 - 22 April 2020: Public review and comments continue.
  • June 2020: Up to three (3) winners are announced on WHO website and invited to an award ceremony at WHO’s Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland as part of a one week program with the Department for Digital Health and Innovation.

Note: Only one (1) submission is allowed per individual or group of individuals. Submissions must be made in your own personal capacity, and not as a representative of an organization. Read terms and conditions and Application Rules.

For any questions, please contact innovation@who.int

“COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support country preparedness and response” now available

We are pleased to announce that the online course “COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support country preparedness and response” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/UNCT-COVID19-preparedness-and-response-EN

In order to assist UN country teams in scaling up country preparedness and response to COVID-19, WHO has developed these learning modules.

This 3-module learning package, a companion to the Operational Planning Guidelines to Support Country Preparedness and Response, introduces the context for the need for a coordinated global response plan to the COVID-19 outbreak. It provides the required guidance to implement the Operational Planning Guidelines to Support Country Preparedness and Response. These planning guidelines describe priority steps and actions to be included in countries’ preparedness and response plans across the major areas of public health preparedness and response. This is aligned with the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP).

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

  • Educate themselves and others about the importance of operationalizing the SPRP for the COVID-19 outbreak using the Operational Planning Guidelines
  • Describe the 8 major pillars of public health preparedness and response and initial actions to be taken by the UN country teams
  • Access the full set of actions, performance indicators and resources needed to conduct the preparedness level assessment using the COVID-19 Partners Platform

There are 3 modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: Mission and purpose of this program (incl. COVID-19 knowledge)
  • Module 2: Country-level preparedness and response
  • Module 3: Pillars of the public health response

It will take approximately 1 hour to finish Modules 1 and 2 and another hour to finish Module 3.

A Record of Achievement will be available to participants who score 80% or higher in the cumulative course assessment for both Modules 1 and 2. Module 3 is free of any certification.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

“Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/COVID-19-IPC-EN.

This course provides information on what facilities should be doing to be prepared to respond to a case of an emerging respiratory virus such as the novel coronavirus, how to identify a case once it occurs, and how to properly implement IPC measures to ensure there is no further transmission to HCW or to other patients and others in the healthcare facility.

This training is intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, as it is focused on infection prevention and control.

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

  • define IPC and its role in the context of preparedness, readiness and response;
  • describe the current epidemiological COVID-19 situation, including case definitions and signs & symptoms;
  • describe source control, administrative controls and environmental and engineering controls;
  • describe the WHO-recommended IPC measures for health care facilities, including when dealing with suspect or confirmed COVID-19 cases;
  • describe additional IPC measures to be taken to assist in general preparedness within a health care facility.

There are 3 modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: Preparedness, readiness and IPC
  • Module 2: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19): its epidemiology, risk factors, definitions and symptomology
  • Module 3: Standard precautions, transmission-based precautions & COVID-19 specific recommendations

The course will take approximately 1 hour to finish.

Hoping to count you among the participants, we wish you a successful training!

“ePROTECT respiratory occupational health and safety” now available

We are pleased to announce that the online course “ePROTECT respiratory occupational health and safety” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/eprotect-acute-respiratory-infections

All personnel responding to outbreaks of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) need to have the basic knowledge and skills to mount an effective response. They need to understand what ARIs are, how they are transmitted, how to assess the risk of infection and the basic hygiene measures to protect themselves.

This course provides a general introduction to Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) and basic hygiene measures to protect against infection.

By the end of this course, participants should understand:

  • the basic principles of acute respiratory infections;
  • how to assess the risk of infection; and
  • basic hygiene measures to protect against infection.

There are 4 modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) of public health concern - Introduction
  • Module 2: How to protect yourself against Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs)
  • Module 3: Basic hygiene measures
  • Module 4: Wearing a medical mask

The course will take approximately 2 hours to finish. There is no certificate available at this time.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

“Introduction to Poliomyelitis and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “Introduction to Poliomyelitis and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative” on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/polio-introduction/

This online training will be used to teach and refresh participants on the basics of the poliovirus, introduce the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partnership, and provide an overview of our core response strategies and the remaining challenges to eradication.

Polio is a virus that spreads from person-to-person with the ability to cause paralysis. In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio. At the time, there were 125 endemic countries. Currently, wild poliovirus remains in only two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is a partnership led by six agencies: WHO, CDC, UNICEF, Rotary BMGF and GAVI. These agencies work together in key areas of surveillance, vaccination, communication, and research to eradicate polio.

This course utilizes short videos and quizzes to introduce the material and test your understanding.

By the end of this course, participants should:

  • Describe the poliovirus, including transmission and key definitions;
  • Explain the differences between the two polio vaccines and how they contribute to prevention;
  • Outline the key components of the polio eradication strategy;
  • Summarize the current status of polio eradication; and
  • Describe the remaining challenges to polio eradication.

There are six modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: Introduction
  • Module 2: The Poliovirus
  • Module 3: Polio Vaccines
  • Module 4: The GPEI Partnership and the Polio Eradication Status
  • Module 5: Polio Eradication Strategies
  • Module 6: Challenges to Polio Eradication

The course will take approximately one hour to finish. Participants can earn a Record of Achievement by scoring 80% and above on all course assessments.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

“Health Cluster Coordination” now available

We are delighted to introduce you to the new online course “Health Cluster Coordination”. This course provides a general introduction to the work of the Health Cluster, which aims to save lives and promote dignity in humanitarian and public health emergencies, and to strengthen the efficiency and accountability of all stakeholders in responding to humanitarian crises. The course can be accessed via the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/health-cluster

By the end of this course, participants should be able to understand the framework of the Health Cluster’s mandate, responsibilities, strategies, lines of accountability and principles in order to lead and coordinate effective, efficient, timely and predictable evidence-based humanitarian health interventions in acute and protracted emergencies.

The full course consists of 17 modules (see below) and will take about 9 hours to complete. Don’t worry - each module can be undertaken separately, whenever it’s most convenient for you! At the end of the course, a record of achievement will be offered to those who earn more than 80% of the maximum number of points from the module assessments. You will also receive a confirmation of participation on completing at least 80% of the course modules.

This interactive online course has been developed by the Global Health Cluster in collaboration with the Health Cluster Capacity Development Task Team, WHO colleagues and our partners from country, regional and global levels who have generously contributed their time and experience. The work was funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Whether you are new to the Health Cluster; a more experienced Health Cluster, WHO colleague or partner; are considering joining an emergency roster or have a keen interest in coordination, we strongly encourage you to complete this Health Cluster Coordination online course.

We hope you enjoy the course and would welcome your feedback at healthcluster@who.int. Please also feel free to disseminate this message to your networks. Best regards,

Global Health Cluster team and OpenWHO team

https://www.who.int/health-cluster/capacity-building/e-learning/en/

17 modules:

  • Module 1: Introduction
  • Module 2: Global Commitments for Humanitarian and Public Health Emergencies
  • Module 3: Health Cluster Coordination: Principles and Functions
  • Module 4: Public Health Information Services (PHIS) Standards
  • Module 5: Needs Assessment
  • Module 6: Public Health Situation Analysis
  • Module 7: The Health Resources Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) Approach
  • Module 8: Humanitarian Response Planning
  • Module 9: Cross-Cutting Issues
  • Module 10: Inter-Cluster Coordination
  • Module 11: The Humanitarian Development and Peace Nexus
  • Module 12: Health Advocacy
  • Module 13: Resource Mobilisation
  • Module 14: Humanitarian Health Response Monitoring
  • Module 15: Cluster Coordination Performance Monitoring (CCPM)
  • Module 16: Humanitarian Preparedness and Contingency Planning
  • Module 17: Transition and Deactivation of Clusters

« Virus respiratoires émergents, y compris le nCoV : méthodes de détection, de prévention, de réaction et de contrôle » disponible dès maintenant

Nous sommes heureux d'annoncer que le cours en ligne « Virus respiratoires émergents, y compris le nouveau coronavirus (nCoV) : méthodes de détection, de prévention, de réaction et de contrôle » est désormais disponible sur OpenWHO. Vous pouvez accéder au cours en utilisant le lien suivant : https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-au-ncov.

Les coronavirus sont une vaste famille de virus susceptibles de provoquer des maladies diverses chez l'homme, allant du simple rhume au syndrome respiratoire du Moyen-Orient (MERS) et au syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère (SRAS).

Un nouveau coronavirus (CoV) a été identifié en 2019 à Wuhan, en Chine. Il s'agit d'un nouveau coronavirus qui n'avait pas encore été identifié chez l'homme. Ce cours constitue une introduction générale au nCoV et aux virus respiratoires émergents ; il est destiné aux professionnels de santé publique, aux gestionnaires d'incidents, coordonnateurs d’urgence et aux collaborateurs travaillant pour les Nations Unies, les organisations internationales, ainsi que les ONG.

À la fin de ce cours, vous serez en mesure de décrire :

  • La nature des virus respiratoires émergents, la façon de détecter et d'investiguer une épidémie, les stratégies de prévention et de contrôle des épidémies dues aux nouveaux virus respiratoires ;
  • Les stratégies qui devraient être utilisées pour communiquer les risques et impliquer les communautés dans la détection, la prévention et la réponse à l'émergence d'un nouveau virus respiratoire.

Il est composé de trois modules, répartis comme suit :

  • Virus respiratoires émergents, y compris le nouveau coronavirus (nCoV) : Introduction
  • Module A : Introduction aux virus respiratoires émergents, y compris le nouveau coronavirus (nCoV)
  • Module B : Détection des virus respiratoires émergents, y compris le nCoV : surveillance et recherche en laboratoire

Le cours durera environ 3 heures.

Remarque :

  • Les équipes de l'OMS travaillent sur des modules supplémentaires qui seront mis en ligne dans les prochains jours.
  • Vous serez avertis lorsque de nouveaux modules et de nouvelles vidéos seront mis en ligne. Actuellement, le matériel est proposé sous forme de diapositives.
  • À l'avenir, ce cours permettra d'obtenir une attestation, lorsque tous les modules auront été publiés et qu'un quiz aura été ajouté à chaque module.
  • Les supports de cours sont en cours de traduction dans d'autres langues.

En espérant vous compter parmi les participants, l'équipe d'OpenWHO vous souhaite une bonne formation !

Real-time Support to nCov Response Through Learning Resources

WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) issues real-time training to help health workers around the world fight the 2019 nCoV outbreak.

WHE’s Learning and Capacity Development team worked with WHO experts to quickly develop and deliver an online training on the detection, prevention, response and control of the coronavirus even before the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern. The course is a new online learning resource on OpenWHO.org which was established three years ago for when emergencies arise, when we would have to reach millions of people across the world in real-time with accessible learning materials.

The course “Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control” is a free, open-source learning resource for anybody interested in the novel coronavirus. It is also a very useful source of knowledge for any WHO staff.

The course was published on January 26th and has now more than 25,000 enrolled users in a period of 10 days. Approximately 3,000 new users have registered for the online resource every day since its launch, illustrating the high levels of interest in the virus among health care professionals and the general public. In addition, more than 200,000 people have viewed the introductory video in the course on YouTube.

The learning resource is currently in production and translation into all official languages and Portuguese.

“WHO Critical Care Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Training Short Course” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “WHO Critical Care Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Training Short Course” on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/severe-acute-respiratory-infection

The WHO Critical Care Training Short Course for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) includes content on clinical management of patients with a severe acute respiratory infection.

This course is intended for clinicians who are working in intensive care units (ICUs) in low and middle-income countries and managing adult and pediatric patients with severe forms of acute respiratory infection (SARI), including severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis and septic shock. It is a hands-on practical guide to be used by health care professionals involved in critical care management during outbreaks of influenza virus (seasonal) human infection due avian influenza virus (H5N1, H7N9), MERS-CoV, nCoV or other emerging respiratory viral epidemics.

By the end of this course, participants should:

  • Possess some of the necessary tools that can be used to care for the critically ill patient from hospital entry to hospital discharge.

There are 14 modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: Introduction to nCoV and IPC
  • Module 2: Clinical Syndromes and Pathophysiology of Sepsis and ARDS
  • Module 3: Triage
  • Module 4: Monitoring
  • Module 5: Diagnostics
  • Module 6: Oxygen Therapy
  • Module 7: Antimicrobials
  • Module 8: Sepsis
  • Module 9: Mechanical Ventilation
  • Module 10: Sedation
  • Module 11: Best Practices to Prevent Complications
  • Module 12: Liberation from Mechanical Ventilation
  • Module 13: Quality in Critical Care
  • Module 14: Pandemic Preparedness and Ethical Considerations

The course will take approximately 10 hours to finish.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

OpenWHO team's research on competency-based learning and OpenWHO global user metrics has been accepted for presentation at the conference Medical Informatics Europe 2020

WHO has set a target of 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies. To achieve that, a health workforce of excellence is needed, supported by a learning strategy that provides a framework for all learning using a competency-based approach. Competency-based learning has been derived from Human Resources practices of identifying the knowledge, skills and attributes required for staff to complete the roles assigned to them and linking these roles to the goals of the organization. In emergency work where staff and leaders face unique pressures, their ability to demonstrate the core competencies becomes particularly important.

WHE core competencies are a subset of WHO competencies: Moving forward in a changing environment, applying technical expertise, communication, teamwork, building and promoting partnerships, and leadership. Functional competencies are encouraged to be developed by technical teams in charge of functional areas. Providing objective and constructive feedback on behaviours can help an individual identify and reflect on his/her strengths and areas for development, which is a key part of the learning process. Competencies must be understood by the staff and personnel supporting a learning programme; faculty should be trained in their use for designing, delivering and assessing learning and training activities.

The OpenWHO team will present the findings of their research at the conference Medical Informatics Europe in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2020. Earlier this week, the team also published the course Competency-Based Learning: Introduction on OpenWHO.org, which provides an introduction to the WHE learning strategy, the competency-based approach that underlies it and how it can be used to design learning and training. The course has accumulated over 1,500 enrolments in the two days since its launch.

“Competency-Based Learning: Introduction” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “Competency-Based Learning: Introduction” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/intro-competency.

World Health Organization (WHO) staff need ongoing learning to equip themselves to deal with modern emergencies. This short course provides an introduction to the WHO Health Emergencies Programme’s learning strategy, the competency-based approach that underlies it and how it can be used to design and deliver training.

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

  • State the strategy that guides learning and training within WHE;
  • List the three main learning pathways in the WHE learning strategy;
  • Describe what a competency is and its three main components;
  • List the two main groups of competencies in the WHE competency framework;
  • Describe the 6 core competencies in the WHE competency framework;
  • List at least one behavioural indicator for each of the core competencies; and
  • Describe an approach that can be used to integrate the competency framework into learning.

There are two modules, as follows:

  • Module 1: An introduction to the WHE learning strategy
  • Module 2: Core competencies and how to use the framework

The course will take approximately 1.5 hours to finish.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

“Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control” now available

We are pleased to announce the online course “Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control” is now available on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness, ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

A novel coronavirus (CoV) was identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China. This is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. This course provides a general introduction to nCoV and emerging respiratory viruses and is intended for public health professionals, incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

  • Understand the fundamental principles of emerging respiratory viruses and how to effectively respond to an outbreak.

There are two modules, as follows:

  • Module A: Introduction to Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV
  • Module B: Detecting Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: Surveillance and Laboratory investigation
  • Module C: Risk Communication and Community Engagement
  • And more to come!

The course will take approximately 1 hour to finish.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

OpenWHO's ePROTECT: A critical resource transferring life-saving knowledge to healthcare workers responding to Ebola at the frontline.

OpenWHO’s ePROTECT course has become a key source of support depended on by healthcare workers and frontline responders fighting Ebola at the country-level. The course is available in both French and English and acts as an occupational health and safety briefing, providing all of the basic information needed to prepare healthcare workers for deployment to an Ebola-affected area.

The platform witnessed a dramatic increase in ePROTECT use in the months following the August 2018 declaration of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) eastern Kivu region. Another sharp spike was seen in October 2018, soon after two key events: firstly, in September 2018, WHO declared the risk of the spread of Ebola from the DRC to be “very high” at the regional level. Secondly, in October 2018, the Ministry of Health of South Sudan (currently a Priority 1 country for the ongoing outbreak in the DRC) urged healthcare workers to refresh their knowledge of Ebola. The increases in course enrolments and user registrations that had been sustained throughout 2018 also continued into 2019, as the Director-General of WHO declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

At one point during the last year, the nine priority countries for the ongoing outbreak in the DRC (Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Central African Republic and Republic of Congo) contributed approximately 900 new course enrolments a day across the English and French versions of the ePROTECT course. Currently, the five countries that users most commonly come from are South Sudan, Sudan, India, Nigeria and Uganda. Concerning the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC, 2 out of the 5 of these (South Sudan and Uganda) are listed as Priority 1 countries by the World Health Organization. South Sudan alone attracts over 3 000 users to the course, making up more than a fifth of all enrolments. In total, the top five user countries constitute over 41% of all ePROTECT users across the two course languages.

Arabic translation of “Accelerating progress towards health-related SDGs” now available // النسخة العربية من دورة " تعجيل التقدم نحو أهداف التنمية المستدامة المرتبطة بالصحة" متاحة الآن

To view the following announcement in Arabic, please click here.

We are pleased to announce the Arabic translation of the online course “Accelerating progress towards health-related SDGs” on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/SDG3-health-well-being-AR

Since 2000, impressive advancements have been made on many health fronts. However, to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) health targets by 2030, progress must be accelerated, in particular in regions with the highest burden of disease. The course gives an overview of the objectives and provides a series of recommendations.

The course consists of five modules and will take approximately 2 hours to finish. At the end of the course, a confirmation of participation will be provided to participants who complete at least 50% of the course material.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

A French version of the course can be accessed through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/ODD3-sante-bien-etre

A Spanish version of the course can be accessed through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/ODS3-salud-bienestar

“Management and Facilitation of an After Action Review (AAR)” now available on the OpenWHO platform

The course “Management and Facilitation of an After Action Review (AAR)” is now available on OpenWHO.

The course has been designed to introduce learners to the knowledge and skills needed for the successful management and facilitation of an After Action Review (AAR).

The course consists of 4 chapters:

  • Chapter 1: Context, purpose and description
  • Chapter 2: Key steps for conducting an AAR using the working group format
  • Chapter 3: Facilitation guidance
  • Chapter 4: Available resources

Upon completion of this online course, the learner should be able to:

  1. Explain the context and the purpose of an AAR
  2. Describe the key steps of an AAR process (by using the working group format)
  3. Describe the roles and responsibilities of facilitators in an AAR and describe the techniques for participatory facilitation
  4. Access the available resources developed by WHO for conducting an AAR

The target audience of this course consists of IHR NFPs, WHO staff, health professionals, partners and any person interested in reviewing and learning from the response to a public health event or emergency in order to be better prepared for the future.

The course will take approximately 1 hour to complete. Participants who score 80% and above on the final course assessment will be able to download a record of achievement.

You can access the OpenWHO course “Management and facilitation of an After Action Review (AAR)” at this link: https://openwho.org/courses/AAR-en

The OpenWHO team wishes you a successful learning experience!

OpenWHO recognized for “reshap[ing] the landscape for distance learning” in the American Journal of Public Health.

An article published in the American Journal of Public Health has commended OpenWHO as an example of the incredible ways digital technology and innovation are improving learning for the world's public health professionals. The authors praised the platform for its “significant contribution to global health”, which has “reshaped the landscape for distance learning” through the promotion of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

OpenWHO Monthly Newsletter: August 2019

Professional profiles of OpenWHO’s 74 000 users confirm the platform’s popularity at the country-level, among United Nations country teams and Ministries of Health.

Since its inception, a core value of OpenWHO has been to provide timely, up-to-date and easy-to-understand lifesaving knowledge to healthcare workers based in-country and responding to outbreaks at the frontline. To assess their success at achieving this aim, the OpenWHO team recently launched an analysis into the most common professional profiles of users registered on the platform. The results highlighted the platform’s popularity among healthcare workers based at the country level, with significant numbers of users registering their professional affiliations as either ‘UN country team’ or ‘Health Ministry', with only the categories of ‘student’ and ‘other’ proving to be more popular among respondents.

The data also illustrated that, in addition to the popular categories of United Nations country teams and Health Ministries, the remaining users were associated with a wide range of professional bodies and occupations, both within public health and beyond, ranging from students and volunteers to WHO staff, to members of international organisations and NGOs. As such, the data suggests that OpenWHO has been successful in achieving yet another one of its aims, to make health-related technical knowledge more accessible to all, including the general public.

Delivering life-saving knowledge to those who need it most, anywhere in the world.

OpenWHO recently celebrated a significant milestone, surpassing 74 000 unique user registrations on the platform. While many of these users are based in the following five countries: the United States of America, India, Portugal, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, the platform's users come from over 190 countries, representing almost all of the world's nations.

More importantly, among the top 20 countries with the highest numbers of users registered on the platform, four are currently experiencing ongoing WHO-graded health emergencies, namely, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. With courses available on the platform in many languages (including the local languages of affected communities), the data on user location provides additional evidence that OpenWHO continues to successfully serve one of its core missions: to deliver lifesaving knowledge to those responding to health emergencies, no matter their location.

OpenWHO's contributions towards widening access to lifesaving information acknowledged by Imperial College Senior Fellow.

In Extending the Reach of Local Healthcare Initiatives with Massive Open Online Courses, published in the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL), author Dr Louise M. Blakemore of Imperial College London paid favourable notice to OpenWHO, commending the platform's "rapid translation" of resources into the languages required by healthcare professionals responding to health emergencies. Dr Blakemore specifically cited the availability of resources on the platform in Lingala, Congolese Swahili and Malagasy as evidence for OpenWHO's commitment to disseminating knowledge in the languages spoken by communities affected by particular outbreaks, and used her article to corroborate the critical importance of such resources.

"Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach" now available in French // Le cours « Bon usage des antibiotiques: une approche par compétences » est maintenant disponible en français

Le cours « Bon usage des antibiotiques: une approche par compétences » est maintenant disponible en français

Plus de 25 000 personne ont commencé le cours massif en ligne Bon usage des antibiotiques : approche par compétence depuis janvier 2018. Aujourd’hui, pour la première fois, le cours sera disponible en français.

Le cours de 8 heures est disponible sur « OpenWHO », la plateforme de transfert de connaissance en ligne et interactive et s'adresse aux prescripteurs d'antibiotiques de première ligne travaillant dans les établissements de soins de santé primaires et les hôpitaux.

Les données indiquent que les antibiotiques sont mal utilisés dans les établissements de soins de santé, ce qui contribue à l'émergence d'organismes multirésistants, qui menacent de saper bon nombre des progrès médicaux les plus importants du siècle dernier.

Manipulez les antibiotiques avec précaution

Les antibiotiques sont des médicaments qui sauvent des vies et leur découverte est l'une des avancées les plus importantes du XXe siècle. Pour que ces médicaments qui sauvent des vies continuent de fonctionner, nous devons tous utiliser les antibiotiques judicieusement. Le « Bon usage des antibiotiques » désigne les interventions conçues pour promouvoir l'utilisation optimale des agents antibiotiques, y compris le choix des médicaments, la posologie, la voie d'administration et la durée de l'administration. Pour lutter contre la résistance aux antimicrobiens, tous les cliniciens doivent devenir les gardiens des antimicrobiens en les prescrivant de façon appropriée et en éduquant leurs patients et leurs collègues sur l'utilisation appropriée de cette ressource médicale de plus en plus menacée.

Version française: https://openwho.org/courses/competence-antibioresistance

English version: https://openwho.org/courses/AMR-competency

Recent analysis highlights that OpenWHO courses often enjoy completion rates above the industry average.

Researchers have known for some time that the completion rates for most Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are unfortunately low, and completion rates across the industry have been estimated to be anywhere between 4% and 15%. While completion rates are not the only way to measure the success of a MOOC, the OpenWHO team was nonetheless pleased to recently discover that completion rates for many of the courses offered on the platform are at least equal to, and usually above, the average rate for the industry.

Typically, completion rates on OpenWHO vary between approximately 10% (a figure near the top end of the industry average) to an outstanding 90.8% (for ePROTECT English). Most of the top emergency-related courses that offer certificates on OpenWHO experience an impressive completion rate between 30% and 45%. Antimicrobial stewardship, the platform's most popular course with over 21 000 enrolled users, follows a similar pattern of success, with a completion rate of 22%. It is worth noting that, in this case, the team's analysis only included those courses for which certificates were available to eligible participants, and further research will seek to uncover what effect, if any, the availability of a course certificate has on the course's completion rate.

The figure illustrates the completion rates for the most popular emergency-related courses that offer certificates and are available on OpenWHO.

OpenWHO user metrics reveal that the platform's top 12 emergency-related courses constitute over half of all course enrolments on the site.

Recent research into OpenWHO user metrics has unveiled the fact that the 12 most popular emergency-related courses on OpenWHO appear, in descending order, as follows: ePROTECT, Incident Management System (IMS) Tier 1, Ebola: Knowledge Resources for Responders, Ebola GO 2.0, Pandemic and Epidemic Prone Diseases, Risk Communication Essentials, Cholera: Introduction, Public Health Interventions in Pandemics and Epidemics, Ebola: Clinical Management of Ebola Virus Disease, IMS Tier 2, Operational Readiness and, finally, Meningitis: Introduction. In total, the above courses have attracted almost 70 000 course enrolments, more than half of the 136 000 enrolments which have accumulated on the platform since its launch two years ago.

The report also revealed that the most popular emergency-related course on the platform, ePROTECT (which hosts more than 14 000 enrolled users) is also the second most popular course out of all of the courses available on the platform. In general, emergency-related courses appear to be a strong favourite among OpenWHO users, with only one non-emergency-related course, Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach, attracting more enrolments than ePROTECT.

OpenWHO releases course in Portuguese: IMS Tier 2 - Working in WHO’s Incident Management System / OpenWHO lança curso em português: IMS Nível 2 - Trabalhar no Sistema de Gestão de Ocorrências da OMS

OpenWHO releases course in Portuguese: IMS Tier 2 - Working in WHO’s Incident Management System

Todas as pessoas que trabalham em emergências para a OMS devem estar familiarizadas com o Sistema de Gestão de Ocorrências (IMS), que a OMS usa para organizar e gerenciar sua resposta.

O Programa de Emergências de Saúde da OMS desenvolveu um curso de nível intermediário sobre o IMS que já foi lançado em inglês, francês, russo e espanhol. Estamos felizes em fornecer o curso completo em Português.

O curso é composto por 5 módulos com narração em áudio e questionário. Abrange:

  1. Os elementos chave do IMS da OMS e o trabalho em Centros de Operações de Emergência;
  2. A forma como as equipas funcionais no âmbito do IMS trabalham em conjunto;
  3. Os padrões éticos que devem ser observados pelas pessoas mobilizáveis pela OMS durante uma resposta de emergência;
  4. Como trabalhar em equipa de maneira eficaz; e
  5. O processo de mobilização e de se manter saudável.

Todos os membros actuais ou potenciais das equipas funcionais do IMS, incluindo os funcionários que não sejam da OMS que serao mobilizáveis, devem concluir o presente curso. Isso levará aproximadamente 3 horas. Um certificado de aproveitamento será fornecido aos participantes que obtiverem uma pontuação igual ou superior a 80% em cada avaliação.

Pode acessar ao curso através do seguinte link: https://openwho.org/courses/sistema-de-gestao-de-ocorrencias-nivel2

Antes de começar este pacote de nível intermédio, recomenda-se que conclua o curso introdutório sobre o IMS, disponível aqui (English/français).

Obrigado pela sua participação nos cursos OpenWHO,

A equipa OpenWHO

Delivering life-saving knowledge to those who need it most, anywhere in the world.

OpenWHO recently celebrated a significant milestone, surpassing 74 000 unique user registrations on the platform. While many of these users are based in the following five countries: the United States of America, India, Portugal, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, the platform's users come from over 190 countries, representing almost all of the world's nations.

More importantly, among the top 20 countries with the highest numbers of users registered on the platform, four are currently experiencing ongoing WHO-graded health emergencies, namely, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. With courses available on the platform in over 20 languages (including the local languages of affected communities), the data on user location provides additional evidence that OpenWHO continues to successfully serve one of its core missions: to deliver lifesaving knowledge to those responding to health emergencies, no matter their location.

OpenWHO's contributions towards widening access to lifesaving information acknowledged by Imperial College Senior Fellow.

In Extending the Reach of Local Healthcare Initiatives with Massive Open Online Courses, published in the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL), author Dr Louise M. Blakemore of Imperial College London paid favourable notice to OpenWHO, commending the platform's "rapid translation" of resources into the languages required by healthcare professionals responding to health emergencies. Dr Blakemore specifically cited the availability of resources on the platform in Lingala, Congolese Swahili and Malagasy as evidence for OpenWHO's commitment to disseminating knowledge in the languages spoken by communities affected by particular outbreaks and used her article to corroborate the critical importance of such resources.

OpenWHO course Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach receives enthusiastic review in Oxford University Press

OpenWHO has been favourably mentioned in an academic review published by the Oxford University Press, on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The authors reviewed OpenWHO's Antimicrobial Stewardship course, praising the course for its simple yet engaging language and structure, and excellent use of informative audiovisual materials. The platform was also lauded for the "significant interactivity" it offers to users through its discussion fora and collaboration spaces.

The English version of the course can be accessed here, and the French version can be accessed here.

OpenWHO lanza curso emblemático en español: IMS Nivel 2 – Trabajando dentro del Sistema de Gestión de Incidentes de la OMS / OpenWHO releases flagship course in Spanish: IMS Tier 2 – Working in WHO’s Incident Management System

The following announcement pertains to the launch of a course in Spanish.

The English version of this course is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/incident-management-system-tier2.

La version française de ce cours est disponible sur : https://openwho.org/courses/systeme-de-gestion-des-incidents-niveau2.

Версию этого курса на русском языке найти можно по этой ссылке : https://openwho.org/courses/incident-management-system-tier2-RU

Toda persona que trabaje en emergencias para la OMS debe conocer el Sistema de Gestión de Incidentes (IMS, por sus siglas en inglés), que la OMS utiliza para organizar y gestionar su respuesta.

El Programa de Emergencias Sanitarias de la OMS ha desarrollado un curso de nivel intermedio sobre el IMS que se publicó anteriormente en inglés, francés y ruso. Estamos encantados de ofrecer ahora el curso completo en español en OpenWHO.

El curso consta de cinco módulos con narración de audio y cuestionario. El curso cubre: (1) los elementos clave del IMS de la OMS y del trabajo en los Centros de Operaciones de Emergencia; (2) cómo los equipos funcionales dentro del IMS trabajan en conjunto; (3) los estándares éticos que deben respetar aquellos que sean desplegados por la OMS durante una respuesta ante emergencias; (4) cómo trabajar en equipo de manera eficaz; y (5) el proceso de despliegue y mantenerse sano.

Todos los miembros actuales o potenciales de los equipos funcionales del IMS, incluido el personal no miembro de la OMS que será desplegado, deben completar este curso. Durará aproximadamente tres horas. Se proporcionará un Certificado de Logro a todos los participantes que obtengan un puntaje del 80 % o más en cada prueba.

Puede acceder al curso a través del siguiente enlace: https://openwho.org/courses/sistema-de-gestion-de-incidentes-nivel2

Antes de comenzar este curso de nivel intermedio, se recomienda a los participantes que completen el curso introductorio del IMS, el cual está disponible aquí (English/Français).

Gracias por participar en los cursos de OpenWHO,

El Equipo de OpenWHO

Providing support for response at the frontline as DG declares Ebola a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

OpenWHO continues to provide support for response to WHO colleagues and other frontline health workers fighting to contain the spread of the virus and prevent loss of life in the DRC. The platform offers six Ebola-related courses available in multiple languages and covering various aspects of the disease, including clinical management and pre-deployment training. All Ebola-related courses are accessible directly through OpenWHO's homepage, under the Current Outbreaks section.

OpenWHO at the European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit

The OpenWHO team was invited to present their original paper at the European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit last month. The summit was an opportunity for the team to share the findings of their own research, as well as engage with and learn from industry pioneers and researchers across the online learning and data science community. The paper, which was recently published, can be accessed here.

OpenWHO выпускает свой первый курс на русском языке: СУИ Уровень 2 - Работа в Системе управления инцидентами ВОЗ

Всем лицам, работающим с ВОЗ в условиях чрезвычайных ситуаций, необходимо ознакомиться с Системой управления инцидентами (СУИ), используемой ВОЗ для организации и управления мерами реагирования.

Программа ВОЗ по чрезвычайным ситуациям в области здравоохранения разработала курс среднего уровня по СУИ, который был выпущен на английском и французском языках в декабре. Мы рады предоставить полный курс на русском языке - наш первый курс на русском языке на OpenWHO!

Курс состоит из 5 модулей со звуковым сопровождением и проверочными вопросами. В курсе рассматриваются:

  1. ключевые элементы Системы управления инцидентами ВОЗ и работа в центрах по проведению операций при чрезвычайных ситуациях;
  2. Как функциональные группы работают вместе в рамках СУИ;
  3. этические стандарты которых надо придерживаться при отправке персонала ВОЗ в ходе реагирования на чрезвычайные ситуации;
  4. способы эффективной работы в команде;
  5. процесс командирования и поддержание здоровья.

Курс необходимо пройти всем командируемым участникам, задействованным в мерах по реагированию: как действующим так и потенциальным членам функциональных групп СУИ, включая внештатных сотрудников ВОЗ. Он займет около 3 часов. Сертификат будет предоставлен участникам, набравшим 80% и более от максимального количества баллов баллов за каждое задание.

Доступ к курсу вы можете получить, пройдя по следующей ссылке: https://openwho.org/courses/incident-management-system-tier2-RU

Прежде чем приступить к заданиям среднего уровня, мы рекомендуем Вам пройти вступительный курс по СУИ, который доступен здесь (English/Français).

Благодарим вас за участие в курсах OpenWHO! Команда OpenWHO

The English version of this course is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/incident-management-system-tier2. La version française de ce cours est disponible sur : https://openwho.org/courses/systeme-de-gestion-des-incidents-niveau2.

Live briefings now available!

OpenWHO has a new function - live briefing. Online learners have the chance to watch the live broadcast, ask questions and download the briefing clip afterwards. The functionality enables live, direct recordings and aims to simplify and economize the knowledge transfer process during emergencies.

“Formation en Gestion des Exercices de Simulation : Introduction” maintenant en ligne

Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer que le cours en ligne “Formation en Gestion des Exercices de Simulation : Introduction” est maintenant disponible sur OpenWHO. Vous pouvez accéder au cours à travers le lien suivant : https://openwho.org/courses/simex-fr.

Ce cours vous donnera un aperçu des exercices de simulation et vous expliquera le rôle qu’ils jouent dans l'élaboration et la mise en œuvre des mesures de préparation aux urgences sanitaires. Les exercices de simulation permettent de s'assurer que les systèmes d'intervention d'urgence sont opérationnels pour gérer les urgences sanitaires.

Le but de ce cours est de vous familiariser avec la méthodologie de l'OMS, les processus et les définitions, ainsi que les ressources disponibles. Ce cours comprend trois modules :

  • Module 1 Introduction aux exercices de simulation ;
  • Module 2 Gestion de projet pour les exercices de simulation;
  • Module 3 Ressources et outils de l’OMS disponibles pour les exercices de simulation.

Le cours dure environ 1 heure. À la fin du cours, un certificat de réussite sera remis aux participants qui auront obtenu une note de 80 % ou plus à l'évaluation finale.

Using artificial intelligence to predict course outreach and learner motivations

OpenWHO team is investigating the impact of various dissemination channels, such as email or social media, on course reach, particularly course enrolments. Current findings include the conclusion that mobile distribution channels generate significant user traffic when compared with other distribution channels, and that the success of particular distribution channels differs according to course language.

What's next? The team is piloting artificial intelligence using machine learning approach to better predict learner motivations and performances. The ultimate goal: provide personalized training suggestions for each learner.

OpenWHO just reached 100 000 enrolments!

OpenWHO reached an exciting milestone this week: More than 100 000 course enrolments!

We would like to thank you, the frontline health workers, decision makers, researchers, experts, medical students and other learning enthusiasts across the globe for making the “open-to-all” concept possible. The virtual health community is growing fast thanks to your passion for health and for Health for All.

OpenWHO will continue to transfer the latest and most relevant scientific, technical and operational knowledge to our growing community to improve health emergency response:

  • Outbreak channel: Offers introductory courses on a wide range of diseases, including cholera, Ebola, Zika, yellow fever and MERS.
  • Preparing for Pandemics: Brings together courses on various aspects of a pandemic.
  • Ready for Response: Provides essential knowledge for ongoing outbreak response, enabling frontline responders to respond better, faster and more safely.
  • Get Social: Focuses on cross-cutting interventions, such as risk communication.

As we work to create a better OpenWHO, we look forward to receiving your continued feedback through our help desk.

Thank you again for enabling us to achieve this important milestone for OpenWHO.

Risk communication essentials : French version now available / Communication sur les risques : Version française maintenant disponible

The Engish version of this course is also available at: https://openwho.org/courses/risk-communication

Toute personne travaillant pour l’OMS dans des situations d’urgence doit se familiariser avec la Communication sur les Risques (RC). Le programme de gestion des situations d’urgence sanitaire (WHE) de l’OMS a mis au point un nouveau cours fondé sur la communication sur les risques pour mieux comprendre le Système que l’OMS utilise pour organiser et gérer ses interventions.

Vous pouvez accéder à ce nouveau cours ici : https://openwho.org/courses/communication-sur-les-risques

Le programme pédagogique se compose de 4 modules avec narration audio et quizz. Il couvre : (1) I’introduction au cours sur la communication sur les risques ; (2) les rudiments de la communication sur les risques ; (3) les capacités de communication sur les risques ; et (4) les outils de communication sur les risques.

Tous les membres actuels ou potentiels des équipes fonctionnelles de la communication sur les risques, y compris le personnel non affecté à l'OMS qui sera déployé, doivent suivre ce cours. Cela prendra environ 8 heures (Aucun certificat de réussite ne sera remis aux participants à l’issu de ce cours).

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OpenWHO aims to equip all frontline responders with the knowledge they need to better contain disease outbreaks and manage health emergencies. It also aims to foster discussions, feedback and sharing of expert knowledge on public health.

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