Several excellent online resources are available for European disease prevention and control professionals. International public organizations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), offer free online courses. Transmissible has developed E-courses, such as 'Estimating Burden of Seasonal Influenza,' 'CBDE-Awareness,' and 'FluTool Plus' for the World Health Organisation, and microlearning for corporate clients.

Online and distance self-learning provides much-added value in transferring knowledge. However, a combination of E-learning and interaction with peers and supervisors is often required to be successful.

Transmissible also offers on-site training to blend with existing online learning resources.

We have a vast network of experienced teachers, trainers, and facilitators for disease prevention & control courses, workshops, or E-course moderators. Partners are part of an international network of experts in disease prevention & control, covering core functions of event detection, threat assessment, threat management, risk communication, crisis evaluation, public health preparedness & training, and public health policy. We organize training in English or Dutch, and if so requested, Transmissible appoints international trainers in the network who can provide the training in another language.

Using our extensive library of outbreak training scenarios, we will train your team in one afternoon or during a full day in one particular aspect of an outbreak investigation, such as: examining a case series; performing a cohort study; the case-control study; dealing with confounding; matched case-control studies.

You can get the best skills training through working with seasoned supervisors, like in apprenticeship- or learning-by-doing settings.

Though you will quickly find such training is resource-intensive and not very scalable. So what options are for teaching fundamental skills on a shorter and more significant scale?

Realistic simulation exercises are an excellent way to put you in emergencies that require you to act and thus teach skills.
These could be tabletop sessions set up in classrooms, simulations outdoors in the field, or behind a computer screen. When you are challenged to make active choices that result in realistic outcomes, it will significantly contribute to developing your skills.

Learning games, in turn, are very useful in helping participants discover new perspectives in an engaging and fun way. Games can put the learner in a situation analogous to reality and have them experience this through a new point of view. Together with our game development partner Grumpy Owl Games, we founded Pandemos, the Public Health Game Company.

We present Game-based Learning tools at conferences for health, such as the Games for Health in Europe Conference (see video on this page).

Here are some case examples of our Preparedness Workshops and Games products.

Probably 100% of all doctors know about microbes and the effect of handwashing, at least, hopefully. They all have the skills to wash their hands. Yet only 50% consistently comply with hand-hygiene protocols. Much of the difference between these two halves is about attitude.

Now consider a conservative politician and a liberal who serve during an epidemic outbreak. They both receive the same data on the handwashing habits of these doctors and the effect it has on the epidemic. It is very likely they will come with very different forms of policy. Maybe one proposes to monitor the hospitals and fine doctors who fail to wash their hands. The other might propose raising awareness through campaigns and education. Their values inform this difference.

Attitudes are learned tendencies to evaluate our experience in a certain way. Tendencies about how you think, feel and act based on your experience.

Values are what you believe in, the ideas that inform your worldview.

If you want to shape the attitudes and values of either professionals or the public, you can’t rely on raw data alone. Here, storytelling is an incredibly effective tool.

Just as the short story about handwashing above illustrates the concept of attitudes and values, stories can be designed to have one understand attitudes and discover what undefined values they act on. Realizing these things, you can follow those of others as well.