The Geneva Learning Foundation

Reda Sadki

“Please, I need someone to enlighten me on the pros and cons of online courses for active learning and professional development.”

There is quite a bit of contextual information missing to decode what is really being asked. We only know that it is an individual professional from an anglophone country in Africa. Still, I can think of at least three ways to answer this question. Answer #1. Wrong question.

Pros and cons of online courses

Have you ever wished you could talk to another health worker who has faced the same challenges as you? Someone who found a way to keep helping people, even when things seemed impossible? That’s exactly the kind of active learning that Teach to Reach Questions make possible. They make peer learning easy for everyone who works for health. What are Teach to Reach Questions?

Why answer Teach to Reach Questions?

Today, The Geneva Learning Foundation launched a new set of “Teach to Reach Questions” focused on how health workers protect community health during extreme weather events. This initiative comes at a crucial time, as world leaders at COP29 discuss climate change’s mounting impacts on health.  As climate change intensifies extreme weather events worldwide, health workers are often the first to respond when disasters strike their communities.

You are not alone: Health workers are sharing how they protected their communities when extreme weather hit

Question: Why were you looking at their data? Answer: Just out of interest to see.

Question: Why were you looking at their data?

Accidents happen

Nearly 300 malaria prevention health leaders from 45 countries met virtually on November 20, 2024, in parallel English and French sessions of REACH. This new initiative connects organizational leaders tackling malaria prevention and control – and other pressing health challenges – across borders.

Ahead of Teach to Reach 11, health leaders from 45 countries share malaria experiences in REACH network session

When complexity science meets implementation science: a theoretical and empirical analysis of systems change

Improved strategies to counter the COVID-19 pandemic: Lockdowns vs. primary and community healthcare

Breaking out of sustainability impasses: How to apply frame analysis, reframing and transition theory to global health challenges

Community health workers and Covid-19: Cross-country evidence on their roles, experiences, challenges and adaptive strategies

What are the barriers to scaling up health interventions in low and middle income countries? A qualitative study of academic leaders in implementation science

Global health continues to grapple with a persistent tension between standardized, evidence-based interventions developed by international experts and the contextual, experiential local knowledge held by local health workers. This dichotomy – between global expertise and local knowledge – has become increasingly problematic as health systems face unprecedented complexity in addressing challenges from climate change to emerging diseases.

Why guidelines fail: on consequences of the false dichotomy between global and local knowledge in health systems

How do we navigate these rules while achieving intended purpose? When we need new knowledge, where do we go? How do we go about it? How do we limit our exploration to ensure that we can still deliver on our tasks?

Patterns and trends

“And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still … put to use by reasonable men to reasonable ends, or by madmen to nonsense and disaster.” – Joseph Campbell, Foreword to The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, 1969

Humans are social beings.

Debunking the &#8220;Social Age&#8221;, a dead end for humanitarian leadership practitioners

My presentation for the Geneva Learning Foundation at the 15th meeting of the WHO Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance Network (REMPAN), World Health Organization, Geneva – 3-5 July 2017.

New learning for radiation emergency medical preparedness and assistance

This came up in one of the Live Learning Moments in the first week of the Geneva Learning Foundation’s #DigitalScholar course:

 This is for Reda: I’m very used to the Coursera/EdX kind of LMS and I’m finding it difficult to follow the course related postings and schedules on the digital learning community currently.

Towers of technology

Jack Welch in General Electric’s Annual Report, nearly two decades ago:  Source: Welch, J., 2000. General Electric Annual Report 2000 (Annual Report). General Electric, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA.

Relishing change

This is the third in a series of five blog posts reflecting on what is at stake in how we learn lessons from the Ebola crisis that erupted in 2014 and continued in 2015.

Online learning around Ebola so far

This is the fourth in a series of five blog posts reflecting on what is at stake in how we learn lessons from the Ebola crisis that erupted in 2014 and continued in 2015. A new blog post will be published each morning this week (subscribe here).


 “Continuous learning at the individual level is necessary but not sufficient to influence perceived changes in […] performance.

Learning in emergency operations: a pilot course to learn how we learn

“Everybody in a fun environment knows more of each other.”

We interact at a human – not only utilitarian – level to form social spaces in which we can build friendships that foster and reinforce the trust we have in each other’s work.

Party time

Where some believe that the value of their network is based on its exclusivity, connectors are people in the organization who have developed large networks of people and who see their role in introducing people in their network to each other. This connector role is closely related to the knowledge brokering process that recombines existing knowledge and facilitates knowledge transfer.

What is a connector?

Technology has enabled new conversations across time and space. Yet e-mail, for example, has become a formal medium, subjected to some of the same rules of consensus that prevail in other formal spaces for dialogue. It can be argued that reading and responding to e-mail requires stopping our (other) work. We also have to figure out how to apply what we learn from e-mail to your work – the applicability problem.

E-mail is formal learning

Humanitarian education is a huge undertaking. Each year, for example, 17 million trainees learn first-aid skills through face-to-face (FTF) training programmes run by the 189 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide.

Quality in humanitarian education

When I first saw Professor Cope’s photos of a 1983 elementary school classroom, I scoffed.

Maybe old learning isn&#8217;t so bad, after all?

We recognize that large-scale, complex emergencies have a dramatic impact on many aspects of our work, including what and how we learn. Some may feel, based on experience, that emergencies kill learning habits. We put

 everything

on hold – including the things we do to stay current – to focus on the emergency response.

Emergencies kill learning habits

Applicability is the brick wall of formal training approaches. Not only do we first have to stop work to attend a training, but once the training is completed, the challenge is then to figure out how to apply what we learned to daily work. It is estimated that, on the average, applicability of a well-designed workshop using the best participatory methods (such as simulations, dialogue, problem-solving, etc.) is around ten percent.

Applicability

Learning that is embedded into work resolves the dilemmas of (formal) learning that requires stopping work. What we learn as we work, we learn in order to apply, and such a learning process does not usually require dedicated resources.

The value of learning embedded in work

Learning is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies (behaviors) through experience and study. We all want to learn, so why is it so difficult to stop work to make time for learning, despite our best intentions? In exploring possible solutions to this question, learning strategy emerges from the existing practices and strengths of the organization – together with a diagnosis of where it needs to improve knowledge performance.

12 questions that learning strategy seeks to answer

The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) will host its first physical-world meeting of Ghana Scholars and Alumni on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 in Accra. Seventy-two health professionals from across Ghana’s health system will participate in the evening event. The participants include staff from the Ghana Health Service, teaching hospitals, district health directorates, and non-governmental organizations.

Making connections: Ghana’s Alumni of The Geneva Learning Foundation meet in Accra

In global health, where challenges are as diverse as they are complex, we need new ways for health professionals to connect, learn, and drive change. Imagine a digital space where a nurse from rural Nigeria, a policymaker from India, and a WHO expert can share experiences, learn from each other, and collectively tackle global health challenges. That’s the essence of Teach to Reach.

Why participate in Teach to Reach?

On August 6, 2024, the Nigeria Immunization Agenda 2030 Collaborative concluded its first peer learning exercise with a final Assembly. This groundbreaking initiative, a partnership between The Geneva Learning Foundation, Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and UNICEF, has already engaged over 4,400 health workers from all 36 States and more than 300 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Nigeria.

7 take-aways from Nigeria’s first Immunization Collaborative peer learning exercise

We need new ways to tackle global health challenges that impact local communities. It is obvious that technology alone is not enough. We need human ingenuity, collaboration, and the ability to share across borders and boundaries. That is why I am excited about Teach to Reach. Imagine if we could tap into the collective intelligence of over 20,000 health professionals working on the front lines in low- and middle-income countries.

Why become a Teach to Reach Partner?

Having presented three online learning approaches, here are three aspects to consider together: What is the cost of developing an online course based on each approach? What is the cost of delivering the course, per learner or per hour? What is the learning efficacy (outcome) that can be expected?

Online learning 101: Costs vs. efficacy

Teach to Reach stands as a unique nexus in the global health landscape, offering unprecedented opportunities for diverse stakeholders to engage, learn, and drive meaningful change. With over 60,000 participants from more than 90 countries, this platform, network, and community bring together a mix of frontline health workers, policymakers, and key decision-makers.

Can Teach to Reach help your organization?

It was James Gleick who noted in his book “Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything” the societal shift towards valuing speed over depth:  “We have become a quick-reflexed, multitasking, channel-flipping, fast-forwarding species.

Brevity’s burden: The executive summary trap in global health

The ability to analyze and respond to learner behavior as it happens is crucial for educators. In complex learning that takes place in digital spaces, task separation between the design of instruction and its delivery does not make sense.

Taking the pulse: why and how we change everything in response to learner signals

Many health leaders are highly analytical, adaptive learners who thrive on solving complex problems in dynamic, real-world contexts. Their expertise is grounded in years of field experience, where they have honed their ability to rapidly generate insights, test ideas, and innovate solutions in collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

Why health leaders who are critical thinkers choose rote learning for others

Today, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh delivered a scientific presentation titled “On the frontline of climate change and health: A health worker eyewitness report” at the University of Hamburg’s Online Expert Seminar on Climate Change and Health: Perspectives from Developing Countries.

Climate change and health: perspectives from developing countries

English version

| Version française This is the preface of the new publication

 The many faces of immunization

. Learn more… Download the collection… Every day, thousands of health workers, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, get up and go to work with a single goal in mind ­ to ensure that vaccines reach those who need them.

World Immunization Week: What do you see?

Do you work for health? Your are invited to a visual storytelling workshop with health care workers from 44 countries. The Geneva Learning Foundation’s first Fellow of Photography, Chris de Bode, will lead this workshop. 544 health care workers from 44 countries have already confirmed their participation. 80% of participants are sub-national staff working in fragile contexts. Most work for their country’s ministry of health.

Visual storytelling for health

Incoming CEO Satya Nadella places enhanced learning capability at the top of Microsoft’s priorities, right after its customers:  This statement reads to me like a subtle balance of power between HR-driven approaches (job mobility) and new ways of doing new things in a knowledge-driven company (never mind that the word ‘knowledge’ does not appear in the message). Some very savvy folks at Microsoft have already, for example, mainstreamed

#EveryoneMicrosoft

As learning leaders, we share a personal passion and commitment to solving wicked problems. We recognize that no one organization can solve these problems alone. We use our talent to advocate for new ways of doing new things, both inside and outside our structures. We see continual learning as the key to preparedness in a hyper-connected VUCA world.

Who are we and why are we talking?

This summary analyzes two important articles examining the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in global health: “Civil society organisations and global health initiatives: Problems of legitimacy” by Doyle and Patel (2008), and “Civil society in global health policymaking: a critical review” by Gómez (2018).  While both articles challenge dominant assumptions about CSOs in global health, Doyle and Patel focus more on issues of legitimacy,

Do Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) actually help global health?

A new interdisciplinary review from the ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre and VU Amsterdam provides an in-depth analysis of the mental health impacts, cultural and historical factors shaping coping and help-seeking, the evolving humanitarian response, and recommendations for strengthening mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in Ukraine.  The report is an interdisciplinary literature review supplemented by key informant interviews.

Mental health and psychosocial support in Ukraine: insights from an interdisciplinary review

The report “Two years on: mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine and affected countries” is from the Psychosocial Support Centre, a specialized hub of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) with the mission to “enhance psychosocial support initiatives”.  Key points from the report include: Nearly “one in ten of those affected by war grapple with moderate to severe mental health issues.” This refers

Learning about mental health and psychosocial needs in Ukraine and affected countries

Over 730 organizations have already confirmed their participation in Teach to Reach 11, a peer learning platform, network, and community for health workers facilitated by the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF).  This announcement came during TGLF’s first partnership briefing held on 16 October 2024.

Ahead of Teach to Reach 11, organizational leaders share experience of ‘what works’ for health

The Geneva Learning Foundation is pleased to announce the tenth edition of Teach to Reach, to be held 20-21 June 2024. Teach to Reach is a massive, open peer learning event where health professionals network, and learn with colleagues from all over the world.

Become a Teach to Reach 10 Partner: Help amplify frontline voices at the world’s largest health peer learning event

Discussions at the World Health Summit in Berlin this week have rightly emphasized the role of health workers, especially those directly serving local communities. Health workers stand at the intersection of climate change and community health. They are first-hand eyewitnesses and the first line of defense against the impacts of climate on health. There is real horror in the climate impacts on health they describe.

World Health Summit: to rebuild trust in global health, invest in health workers as community leaders

If you are interested in the strategic significance of educational technology for workplace learning, make sure that you do not miss the open, online symposium happening 18-19 June 2014. The event is organized by George Siemens and hosted by Corp U. I will be facilitating sessions with the World Bank and OECD, as well as presenting on partnerships between corporate and non-profit learning leaders to scale up humanitarian education.

Scaling corporate learning

The work by Robert A. Bjork and his colleagues is very helpful to make sense of the limitations of learners’ perceptions. Here are 8 summary points from their paper about self-regulated learning. Our complex and rapidly changing world increasingly requires self-initiated and self-managed learning, not simply during the years associated with formal schooling, but across the lifespan.

8 things we know about learning across the lifespan in a complex world

Here is a summary of the key points from the article “Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened: creating and sustaining process improvement”. Overview  Many companies invest heavily in process improvement programs, yet few efforts actually produce significant results.

The capability trap: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened

As world leaders gathered for the COP28 climate conference, the Geneva Learning Foundation called for the insights of health workers on the frontlines of climate and health to be heard amidst the global dialogue.

Climate change and health: Health workers on climate, community, and the urgent need for action

The global health community has long grappled with the challenge of providing effective, scalable training to health workers, particularly in resource-constrained settings. In recent years, digital learning platforms have emerged as a potential solution, promising to deliver accessible, engaging, and impactful training at scale. Imagine a digital platform intended to train health workers at scale.

Learn health, but beware of the behaviorist trap

In the article “Towards reimagined technical assistance: the current policy options and opportunities for change”, Alexandra Nastase and her colleagues argues that technical assistance should be framed as a policy option for governments. It outlines different models of technical assistance:

 Capacity substitution

: Technical advisers perform government functions due to urgent needs or lack of in-house expertise.

Towards reimagined technical assistance: thinking beyond the current policy options

In “Prioritising the health and care workforce shortage: protect, invest, together,” Agyeman-Manu et al. assert that the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated longstanding health workforce deficiencies globally, especially in under-resourced nations.

Protect, invest, together: strengthening health workforce through new learning models

In her article “A Shared Lens for Sensemaking in Learning Analytics”, Sasha Poquet argues that the field of learning analytics lacks a shared conceptual language to describe the process of sensemaking around educational data. She reviews prominent theories of sensemaking, delineating tensions between assumptions in dominant paradigms.

Making sense of sensemaking

Warren M. Brodey, writing in 1967, advocated for “intelligent environments” that evolve in tandem with inhabitants rather than rigidly conditioning behaviors. The vision described deeply interweaves users and contexts, enabling environments to respond in real-time to boredom and changing needs with shifting modalities.

The design of intelligent environments for education

The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh spoke today at the COP28 Health Pavilion in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Watch the speech at COP28… Good afternoon. I am Charlotte Mbuh. I have worked for the health of children and families in Cameroon for over 15 years.

Climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve: health workers speak out at COP28

At a World Health Organization conference in Panama, The Geneva Learning Foundation is hosting an Innovations Café today.

What did we learn from the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) in its first two years?

The following is excerpted from Watkins, K.E. and Marsick, V.J., 2023. Chapter 4. Learning informally at work: Reframing learning and development.

Learning-based complex work: how to reframe learning and development

A new article by colleagues at the Cambridge Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) illustrates academic understanding of Collective Intelligence (CI) through the COVID-19 Peer Hub, a peer learning initiative organized by over 6,000 frontline health workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with support from The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), in response to the initial shock of the pandemic on immunization services that placed 80

The COVID-19 Peer Hub as an example of Collective Intelligence (CI) in practice

By Julie Jacobson, Alan Brooks, Charlotte Mbuh, and Reda Sadki  The escalating threats of climate change cast long shadows over global health, including increases in disease epidemics, profound impacts on mental health, disruptions to health infrastructure, and alterations in the severity and geographical distribution of diseases.

Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

Teach to Reach are fast-paced, dynamic digital events connecting local and global practitioners to each other in a new, potentially transformative shared dialogue.

Teach to Reach: peer learning at scale

We honor everyone who is joining the Special Event “From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change”: health staff from immunization and other areas of health – environmental health and One Health, but also those who fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), HIV, and other ailments.

Honoring health professionals as leaders of change

With climate-driven shifts in disease patterns and emerging health threats, the need for a robust immunization infrastructure is more obvious than ever. As the demand for both existing and novel vaccines rises in response to an expanding disease burden and new health threats, immunization staff will inevitably play a key role.

What does immunization have to do with climate change?

“Some individuals are acknowledged as credible knowers within global health, while the knowledge held by others may be given less credibility.”

– (Himani Bhakuni and Seye Abimbola in

 The Lancet

, 2021) “Immunization Agenda 2030” or “IA2030” is a strategy that was unanimously adopted at the World Health Assembly in 2020.

Credible knowers

Question 1. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?

Which is better for global health: online, blended, or face-to-face learning?

Read this in English: Why an open-source manifesto for global health?

Read this in English

: Why an open-source manifesto for global health?

Pourquoi un manifeste open-source pour la santé globale?

In the realm of classical music, the orchestra stands as a formidable emblem of aesthetic grandeur and refinement. However, beneath the veneer of sophistication lies a deeply entrenched system that stymies the potential for creative exploration and spontaneity.

Metaphors of global health: jazz improvisation ensemble or classical orchestra?

Rubrics are well-established, evidence-based tools in education, but largely unknown in global health. At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), the rubric is a key tool that we use – as part of a comprehensive package of interventions – to transform high-cost, low-volume training dependent on the limited availability of global experts into scalable peer learning to improve access, quality, and outcomes.

What is a “rubric” and why use rubrics in global health education?

At the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF), we have just begun to share a publication like no other. It is titled

 Overcoming barriers to vaccine acceptance in the community: Key learning from the experiences of 734 frontline health workers

. You can access the full report here in French and in English.

Reinventing the path from knowledge to action in global health

We empower practitioners to tailor learning experiences that fit their own needs to drive change:

Participants do not  stop work to learn, every step of the process is embedded in and focused on their daily work. Typical learning events include:

The Geneva Learning Foundation: Spanning the full spectrum of learning

Our approach based on

 intrinsic motivation

, continuous learning and problem–solving leads to impact. Practical implementation with

 peer support

accelerates progress to get results and document impact.

Motivation and connection for transformation at the heart of the Geneva Learning Foundation’s approach

In its first years of operation, the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) built digital infrastructure to foster and support several global networks and platforms connecting practitioners.

The Geneva Learning Foundation: Scale, reach, and sustainability

What we do and how we do it have both changed rapidly since we launched the Impact Accelerator, the key component Geneva Learning Foundation’s learning-to-action pathway. We catalyze large scale peer networks of frontline actors facing critical threats to our societies.

What is the Geneva Learning Foundation and what do we do?

Part 1: The Journey Begins   Suspended in the swirling galaxies beyond our own, the celestial stage of the Cat’s Eye Nebula shimmered. The nebula was a kaleidoscope of iridescent gases, dazzling cosmic dust, and radiant energy, an ideal sanctuary for the Astral Scholars. Their gathering place, the Obsidian Forum, was a levitating, jet-black platform, as if carved from a fragment of the universe itself.

Defunking Grunter

“You’ll become a dinosaur if you don’t learn.”

People in the organization recognize the need for change, see its value, see their own roles in the process, are willing to adopt new approaches, and possess the competence to move forward with change: At the individual level, we strive to consider each task, however mundane, as an opportunity to learn.

Dinosaur

We achieve operational excellence to provide a high-quality, personalized and transformative learning experience for each learner – no matter how many are in the cohort.

How we work

Summary of highlights from the Full Learning Cycle, Monday 14 March Resources Anglophones: link to slidedeck; link to recording Francophones: link to slidedeck; link to recording

Summary of highlights from the Full Learning Cycle, Monday 14 March


 # of participants:

By Monday,

 6,319 immunization professionals accepted

to the Full Learning Cycle, including 3,592 Anglophones and 2,727 Francophones.

 Participation

: Scholars are participating with high motivation and bringing an incredible energy to build the IA2030 Movement.

General Assembly of the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 on 14 March 2022

On 27 June 2021, Convenors of the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Dialogue for learning, leadership and impact, Karen Watkins and Reda Sadki, were joined by four Key Contributors: Laura Bierema, Bill Gardner, Bryan Hopkins, and Aliki Nicolaides.

Listen to the fourth TGLF Dialogue on learning, leadership, and impact

Discover the leadership journeys of two remarkable learning leaders   Every episode is different, drawing on the life experiences of Key Contributors and of listeners.

Listen to the Eighth Dialogue for Learning and Leadership

In this sixth Dialogue for learning, leadership, and impact on 29 August 2021,

 Reda Sadki

and

 Karen E. Watkins

explore: Is there a meaningful difference between change and transformation?

Listen to the sixth TGLF Dialogue on learning, leadership, and impact

For decades, learning in global health has depended on a conventional model premised on the scarcity of available knowledge and an emphasis on establishing mechanisms to transmit that knowledge from the center (capital city, headquarters) to the periphery (field, village, training room).  With the Internet, scarcity disappeared. But the economy of high-cost, low-volume training has persisted, with little or no accountability.

Renaissance

“Everything is now. Knowledge flows in real time. Global conversations are no longer restricted by physical space. The world has become immediate.”

– George Siemens in

 Knowing Knowledge

(2006) Twenty Key Contributors have now joined the Geneva Learning Foundation’s monthly Dialogue on learning, leadership, and impact.

Now is not everything

On 30 May 2021, Convenors Karen Watkins and Reda Sadki were joined by eight Key Contributors: Nancy Dixon, Bryan Hopkins, Barbara Moser-Mercer, Renee Rogers, Catherine Russ, Esther Wojcicki, Laura Bierema, and Emanuele Capobianco. This was the third Dialogue convened by The Geneva Learning Foundation for learning, leadership, and impact. Each Key Contributor has a fascinating, singular leadership journey.

Listening for leadership

A new global vision and strategy titled ‘Immunization Agenda 2030: A Global Strategy to Leave No One Behind (IA2030)’ was endorsed by the World Health Assembly less than a year before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Today, the cumulative tension of both urgent and longstanding challenges is stretching people who deliver vaccines.

What is the value of strategy in the middle of a global crisis?

Burck Smith wrote in 2012 what remains one of the clearest summaries of how accreditation is based primarily on a higher education institution’s inputs rather than its outcomes, and serves to create an “iron triangle” to maintain high prices, keep out new entrants, and resist change.

Can the transformation of global health education for impact rely on input-based accreditation?

Charlotte Mbuh and I will be welcoming Julie Jacobson, one of the founders of Bridges to Development, for our 15-minute Global Health Symposium about neglected needs of women’s health, and specifically the upcoming Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) workshop being organized by the FAST package, a group of international and country partners. Join the Symposium on Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

What does the changing nature of knowledge mean for global health?

Listen in on the Foundation’s first invitation-only Clubhouse chat. Karen Watkins and I chatted about the Foundation’s unique approach to this triptych of learning, leadership, and impact in the Digital Age. We shared some of the insights we gained about resilience during the first year of COVID-19, learning from the Foundation’s immunization programme that connected thousands of health professionals during the early days of the pandemic.

Learning, leadership, and impact in the Digital Age: In dialogue with Karen Watkins

L&amp;D is dead. Pushing us down the blind alley of technological solutionism, the learning technologists have demoted learning to tool selection.

Ashes to ashes

The assumption that countries have the capacity to take on recommendations from the best available knowledge, achieve understanding, and turn them into effective policy and action, leaves unanswered the mechanisms through which a publication, a series of meetings, or a policy comparison may lead to change.

Think and do

We struggle with the measurement of learning. Elaborate frameworks compete for attention. The sophistication of complexity theory or fractals, the business speak of ROI, levels, pyramids, concentric circles… every learning guru peddles a model to describe and diagnose the effects of what we try to do – and what learners actually do most often on their own.

Magic

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break. When the levee breaks, I’ll have no place to stay. – Led Zeppelin

While the International Trainer lands at the airport, is chauffeured to her hotel, and dutifully reviews her slides and prepares her materials, a literally and figuratively captive audience has been herded at great cost to that same hotel, lured in by a perverse combination of incentives.

The international trainer

We understand the yearning to find a low-cost or no-cost way to spontaneously create a thriving community of practice in which participants engage intensively, volunteer undue amounts of time and effort to keeping the community alive, support other members, and make use of the resources and sharing that emerge.

What if you build it and they do not come?

ADELAIDE, 27 November 2020

(University of South Australia) – More than 80 million children under the age of one at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. UniSA researchers are evaluating a new vaccination education initiative – the COVID-19 Peer Hub – to help immunisation and public health professionals tackle the emerging dangers of vaccine hesitancy amid the pandemic.

COVID-19 Peer Hub combats vaccine avoidance amid pandemic

So I’m reading John Henry Newman’s

 The Idea of a University,

which begins by asserting that the university “is a place of teaching universal knowledge”. I’m fascinated by the historical context (Catholicism in Protestant England), by the strength and substance of the ideas, and by the narrative style of carefully-constructed arguments.

The idea of a university (updated)

Busy managers may enjoy connecting socially and exchanging informally with their peers. However, they are likely to find it difficult to justify time doing so. They may say “I’m too busy” but what they usually mean is that the opportunity cost is too high. The Achilles heel of

 communities of practice

is that – just like formal training – they require managers to stop work in order to learn. They break the flow of learning in work.

Imagining a new kind of community of practice

Business gets done by groups in workshops and meetings and by individuals in private conversation. There is an undeniable cultural advantage for diplomacy that comes from looking your interlocutor in the eye. Emerging digital platforms are in the margins of this business. The pioneers are creaky in their infrastructure and, ironically, playing catch-up. They have long lost the initial burst of enthusiasm that led to their creation.

The significance of digital platforms to the business

Question: “So what learning platform do you use?”  Answer: “The Internet.”  I first remember hearing the phrase “Everyone hates their LMS” from a defrocked priest of higher education. That made so much sense. At the time, I was wrestling with a stupid, clunky corporate learning management system designed for the most paranoid kind of HR department, touting its 10,000 features, none of which could do what we actually needed.

From ivory tower to walled garden

Copenhagen. I chat with two “learning consultants”, whose job it is in their respective universities to help faculty improve how they teach. Much to my dismay, I understand that their role is perceived as being about the adoption of new tools (“Should I use Adobe Connect or Zoom?”). Yet they are a case in point that learning technologists provide a rare opportunity for university faculty to think through how they teach.

Subject matter experts as a learning problem

The idea that adult learners have much to learn from each other is fairly consensual. The practice of peer learning, however, requires un-learning much of what has been ingrained over years of schooling. We have internalized the conviction that significant learning requires expert feedback.

Missed opportunities (2): How one selfish learner can undermine peer learning

The learning landscape is changing fast. Even the most jurassic face-to-face trainers I know are now embracing the digital transformation or at least trying to. Ephemeral fads such as the Social Age or gamification are proliferating alongside newer, more sustainable and productive approaches that match the learning contexts of humanitarians and support the development of their capabilities in a volatile world.

Reda Sadki

Peer learning in immunization programmes