Learning from a massive open online COVID-19 vaccination training experience (Preprint)

BACKGROUND To prepare key stakeholders in countries for COVID-19 vaccination rollout, WHO and partners have developed online vaccination training packages. The online course launched in December 2020 on the OpenWHO learning platform. OBJECTIVE This paper presents findings of an evaluation conducted on these training packages. The evaluation was done to provide insights into user experiences and challenges, measure the impact of the course in terms of knowledge gained, and anticipate potential interest in future online vaccination courses. METHODS The primary source of data was the anonymised information on course participants, enrollment, completion, and scores from the OpenWHO platform’s statistical data and metric reporting system. Data from the OpenWHO platform was analyzed from the opening of the courses in mid-December 2020 to mid-April 2021. In addition, a learner feedback survey was sent by email to all course participants to complete within a three-week period (03/19/2021 – 04/09/2021). The survey was designed to determine the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the training packages and to understand barriers to access. RESULTS During the study period, 53,593 learners enrolled in the course. Of them, 56% completed the course, which is substantially higher than the industry benchmark of 5-10% for a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Overall, learners averaged 75% on the pre-quiz compared to 92% on the post-quiz, resulting in an increase in average score of 17%. 2,019 learners from the health workers course participated in the survey. Nearly 98% of respondents fully or somewhat agreed that they had more confidence in their ability to support COVID-19 vaccination following completion of this course. CONCLUSIONS The online vaccine training was well received by the target audience with a measurable impact on knowledge gained. The key benefits of online training were convenience, self-paced nature, the access to downloadable material, ability to replay material and increased ability to concentrate. Online training was identified as a timely, cost-effective way of delivering essential training to a large number of people to prepare for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.