Open-Access Learning as a Pathway to Equity During Health Emergencies

Real-time learning in health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic is a critical mechanism to provide frontline health workers, responders, decision-makers and the public with equitable access to the latest knowledge to save lives, reduce disease transmission and protect the vulnerable. The World Health Organization (WHO) established the OpenWHO.org learning platform to meet this need. Courses are free, self-paced, accessible in low-bandwidth and offline formats, and available in national and local languages. Enrolment data from OpenWHO's introductory COVID-19 course, which has more than 1 million enrolments across 45 language versions, were examined according to language and geographical reach to assess how multilingual availability contributes to equity in learning. The analysis found that most language versions had uptake clustered in key countries where native speakers are concentrated, while use of some translations was more broadly dispersed. In nearly three-fourths of the available language versions of the course, more than one-third of enrolments were found in the top country of use. The findings suggest that courses available in the United Nations languages, as well as national and local languages, served as entryways for learners who may not have otherwise been able to participate. A production policy that prioritizes translation of open online courses into diverse languages contributes to equity in access to public health knowledge at the global and country levels during health emergencies. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Open-Access Learning as a Pathway to Equity During Health Emergencies

Real-time learning in health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic is a critical mechanism to provide frontline health workers, responders, decision-makers and the public with equitable access to the latest knowledge to save lives, reduce disease transmission and protect the vulnerable. The World Health Organization (WHO) established the OpenWHO.org learning platform to meet this need. Courses are free, self-paced, accessible in low-bandwidth and offline formats, and available in national and local languages. Enrolment data from OpenWHO's introductory COVID-19 course, which has more than 1 million enrolments across 45 language versions, were examined according to language and geographical reach to assess how multilingual availability contributes to equity in learning. The analysis found that most language versions had uptake clustered in key countries where native speakers are concentrated, while use of some translations was more broadly dispersed. In nearly three-fourths of the available language versions of the course, more than one-third of enrolments were found in the top country of use. The findings suggest that courses available in the United Nations languages, as well as national and local languages, served as entryways for learners who may not have otherwise been able to participate. A production policy that prioritizes translation of open online courses into diverse languages contributes to equity in access to public health knowledge at the global and country levels during health emergencies. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Online Learning for Mass Audiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Key Considerations for Real Time Knowledge Transfer

This paper introduces online learning related key considerations for asynchronous health information dissemination during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are based on 1.5 years of real-time massive scale learning intervention during this public health emergency and on related literature reviews. Meta-data analysis on World Health Organization’s (WHO) open access online learning platform OpenWHO and review on health emergency learning interventions literature. The study sought to operationalize the key considerations related to the health information dissemination as an asynchronous online learning delivery. Statistics driven findings were made based on open-source learning platform OpenWHO use case and scientific literature from the similar recorded experiences. The paper presents analysis from the recent literature and couples it with the real-time pandemic learning response results. The study suggests establishing key considerations for health emergency related learning dissemination for mass audiences: Real-time learning provision in free access, low-bandwidth and offline use formats, national and local language provision, choice of format for learners and adjustment of the learning content based on adult learning principles. The key considerations of the online learning delivery in mass mode in health emergencies emerged from the study and are recommended way forward for any international learning provided in health emergencies © 2022, International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Ensuring equity in access to online courses: Perspectives from the WHO health emergency learning response COMMENT

The World Health Organization's (WHO) open-source learning platform, OpenWHO, allows diverse audiences worldwide to access self-paced, asynchronous online courses based on WHO technical expertise and guidance. In addition, the platform emphasizes equitable access to learning by aiming to remove barriers. All OpenWHO courses are therefore provided free of charge and in low-bandwidth friendly, downloadable, and offline formats. This paper explores differences in access to online learning across learner demographics, namely gender, country income status, and preferred language. The evidence presented is derived from surveys and statistical data extracted from the OpenWHO platform. It advocates for the importance of offering courses in non-time-bound formats that address the relevant diseases, outbreaks, and challenges of affected communities. Doing so is vital to ensure the broadest possible and most equitable access to learning, according to learners' availability and preferred media, languages, and health topics.

Harnessing technology to respond to the global demand for learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic generated an unprecedented global demand for learning about the disease and how to manage it. This paper draws on theWorld Health Organization (WHO)'s experience of COVID-19 knowledge-transfer to a worldwide audience of millions of learners registered on OpenWHO, WHO's massive open online course platform. It aims to illustrate the technological solutions that WHO, in collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), OpenWHO's platform provider, employed in response to the unique challenges this surge in demand for learning engendered. Data on OpenWHO use, including geographic patterns and certificate attainment, were extracted from OpenWHO's internal and external reporting systems. Descriptive analysis was employed to identify trends and compare OpenWHO use with COVID-19 caseload in each WHO region. Data on the OpenWHO system load were obtained from the OpenWHO load balancer (HAProxy). The OpenWHO team responded to the need for trustworthy, evidence-based knowledge on COVID-19 via three main avenues: increased scale, targeting the needs of affected and underserved communities, and prioritising multilingualism. Each approach brought novel problems, which WHO and HPI leveraged their collaboration to meet by employing technology. This included increasing server bandwidth, expanding support teams, adding new language capabilities, and deploying functions to streamline workflows and boost learner experience. In doing so, the ability to effectively and efficiently harness technology became a critical step towards empowering learning's life-saving potential during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 14th International Conference on ICT, Society, and Human Beings, ICT 2021, 18th International Conference on Web Based Communities and Social Media, WBC 2021 and 13th International Conference on e-Health, EH 2021 - Held at the 15th Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, MCCSIS 2021. All rights reserved.

Fast-tracking who's COVID-19 technical guidance to training for the frontline

This article describes progress in achieving the goals of OpenWHO to transform, translate and transfer technical guidance for the COVID-19 emergency - the first pandemic since the platform was launched. An analysis of the role of OpenWHO resources within the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19, the number and use of translated resources and the platform reach by channel was used to determine the impact of OpenWHO's learning response to the COVID-19 emergency and make recommendations to further improve the platform's contribution to global health in a pandemic. Current experience in using the OpenWHO platform for WHO's training response to the pandemic has proven that the platform is sufficiently robust to manage massive increases in traffic and that the basic infrastructure and model can be accessed in low bandwidth settings. Translation into usable formats and languages has also ensured global dissemination and reach. The recognition that public health training is a global public good has made it possible to offer the courses for free, ensuring greater equity of access to information to protect health and save lives.