Conveners
Essential learning for health emergencies and public health: WHO’s open source online learning platform
- Eric Comte (Geneva Health Forum)
Description
The global landscape of education and knowledge transfer has been significantly altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global crisis has compelled us to rethink our conventional methods of imparting knowledge, urging us to swiftly adapt, enhance, harness technology, and embrace innovations to ensure the efficient, effective, and timely dissemination of health-related information.
The OpenWHO.org online learning platform, created by the World Health Organization, has played a pivotal role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding its course offerings. It now offers approximately 50 self-paced online courses covering all facets of COVID-19 response, as well as a broad spectrum of over 250 health-related courses across 72 languages.
With over 8 million enrolments hailing from diverse countries worldwide, OpenWHO has extended its learning outreach to previously marginalized groups, including women, individuals over the age of 70, and those under the age of 20.The digitization of learning has served as a bridge, enabling previously underserved participants to access learning programs. The World Health Organization has reported an expansion of learning opportunities in low- and middle-income countries.These courses are freely accessible in multiple languages and are designed to be user-friendly, accommodating individuals with disabilities.
Feedback from learners across all demographics highlights the immense value of just-in-time learning and skill-building in emergency situations, such as epidemics and pandemics.
In anticipation of future pandemics including climate-related major public health emergencies, we are proactively preparing for forthcoming events and the learning response required to address them.
This session aims to present the key findings from OpenWHO.org, WHO’s open access online learning platform, during the learning response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it informs and helps anticipate the future of learning in the next pandemic and other future potential climate-related major health events.
