Immersive simulations to teach infodemic management: WHO global infodemic manager trainings

BACKGROUND: When teaching infodemic management (IM) to health professionals and emergency response staff, teaching only technical skills is not sufficient because infodemics affect health workers both professionally and personally. Infodemic response also requires lateral thinking to problem-solve and thus requires experiential learning to teach IM competencies. WHO has developed, delivered and continuously improved a simulation-based training approach to teach IM to health workers and public health practitioners. OBJECTIVES: To deliver an effective immersive IM simulation the following components must be considered: Designing the simulation world; Designing the tasks in the simulation world; Introducing humor and causing infodemic experience; Teaching cultural humility and ensuring psychological safety; Providing support to trainees; Considerations for virtual vs in-person delivery; Preparing and assembling the delivery team; Delivering the performance and simulation experience. RESULTS: WHO has designed delivered and evaluated teaching immersive simulations in in-person, online and hybrid formats, in English and French, with over 1400 trainees in 4 online and 4 offline trainings. Building and delivering an immersive world requires a team of people with different skills but a common vision and training philosophy. The facilitator team must build rapport between trainees quickly and offer multiple ways how trainees can ask for help, and encourage experience sharing and encourage further diffusion of materials, concepts and training approaches within the trainee community. CONCLUSIONS: WHO immersive teaching simulations for infodemic management competence building have used human-centered design and flipped classroom approaches in design and delivery of the learning and teaching programmes. Simulations have been adapted to other languages, topics, and adapted to regional cultural contexts. KEY MESSAGES: • Simulation teaches trainees how information overload and infodemics impact both health workers and communities they serve. • Immersive teaching simulations providing a wrap-around experience that is fun and safe for experimenting and learning by participants.