Basis for the Case Study The basis for the example developed for the conference was the 214.311 Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases course oered by Massey University. As part of this course, students take part in a typical disease out- break scenario entitled “Hotel M” that a local public health unit might investigate. The scenario was developed and adapted from a Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention (CDC, 2019) example to ensure the content and tasks reflect current practice in New Zealand. Students working in groups receive “injects” of information (i.e., inserts of information relevant to the scenario) and were asked to answer questions, make deci- sions, and complete typical tasks required of an outbreak investigation team over 3–4 hr. In 2020, in response to COVID-19 and the decision to have our conference be virtual, we adapted the Hotel M scenario for use in a course with online conferencing software (i.e., Zoom), drawing on software features and other technology to support learner engagement and collaboration such as employing breakout rooms, polls, and virtual whiteboards. We also engaged the support of a public health col- league, who oversees outbreak investigations, to record some simple videos where he pro- vided updates and asked the learners to com- plete tasks, which we edited into short clips to guide students through the scenario. For the conference, the challenge was to create a much shorter scenario that would be introduced in snippets of information throughout the day, interspersed with other presentations, rather than the dedicated 3- to 4-hr exercise oered in our course workshop. At a practical level, we also wanted to develop a new study so that any former students attending the conference would not already know the answers. Our new example, “Workshop X,” used data provided by our local public health unit from one of their recent investigations, which we adapted to protect privacy. We simplified the information for use in this conference context. The scenario involved several work- shop participants becoming ill shortly after a shared meal at a weekend workshop and the subsequent investigation. We reviewed the framework of questions and tasks that the Hotel M scenario was built on and from these tasks chose questions and tasks that a) would cover important aspects of an outbreak inves-
through Massey University, whereby over the duration of that course, an evolving outbreak scenario was presented with students being tasked with investigating and identifying the source of the outbreak. We did not believe such an idea had been tried before at a confer- ence, so we looked in to the feasibility of this idea to explore if it could be implemented. Environmental health sta from Massey University were able to adapt a course module to fit this idea. Due to COVID-19, the delivery of traditional in-person courses also changed and moved to virtual ways of delivering infor- mation. The virtual platform for the confer- ence, fortunately, had gamification elements. Attendees could earn points by completing quiz questions and other tasks. Points deter- mined who won an overall prize of a $1,000 charitable donation made in the winning attendee’s name by NZIEH to a registered New Zealand charity of the winner’s choice. Most attendees were environmental health ocers, though we were aware that, for many, it could have been several years since they had been presented with particular facts, figures, and graphs of an epidemiological nature. Therefore, we consciously presented the outbreak and information provided at a level such that those who were inexperi- enced with outbreak investigations could participate and try to solve the mystery, yet experienced ocers would still be challenged enough to be motivated to find the answers. Two of the authors from this special report wrote the scenario and delivered the content. Rationale Unfolding case studies are considered best practice for teaching outbreak investigations around the world (Cremin et al., 2018; Dicker, 2017; Nelson et al., 2018). These types of case studies are particularly appropriate for learners with a range of experience with disease investi- gations (Dicker, 2017; Nelson et al., 2018) and have been used for ongoing professional devel- opment of non-epidemiologists with potential roles in outbreak investigations (Barrett et al., 2018; Burckhardt & Kissling, 2020; White et al., 2018). While there are examples of using unfolding outbreak exercises in short courses or summer school symposium sessions (Cre- min et al., 2018; University of Otago, 2020), to our knowledge there are no published exam- ples of using an unfolding outbreak scenario in a virtual conference.
tigation, b) could be solved mostly by using information introduced though short video injects, and c) could be answered through a multiple-choice question format. We wrote a script and developed a series of eight short videos that each ended with a multiple-choice question. Several sessions allowed time for participants to discuss the question in small groups in a virtual breakout room. The outbreak was introduced live at the start of day 1 of the conference and ended with a live final wrap-up session at the end of day 2, where attendees could ask questions and discuss their findings. The virtual platform featured a resources section where we could add materials used in the outbreak scenario as they were intro- duced across the 2-day conference for attend- ees who missed an earlier installment of the unfolding outbreak scenario. The last part of the puzzle was to ensure that our virtual mas- ter of ceremonies was able to keep the sce- nario in the forefront and assist with informa- tion injects throughout the conference. Response and Evaluation Data from the conference platform showed between 88 and 107 attendees signed into the 16 sessions oered over the 2 days of the conference. Using the highest number of unique logins as the reference denominator, 93% (99/107) of attendees attended the intro- duction to the outbreak scenario session and 80% (86/107) of attendees attended the final wrap-up of the scenario. Response data were available for all sce- nario questions asked during the conference, including the nine posed at the end of each outbreak inject. Using the same denominator, 86% of session attendees attempted at least one of the questions, with most of the ques- tions attempted by at least one half of the attendees. The percentage of attendees who attempted questions declined throughout the conference, but did increase, with the final question attempted by 52% of attendees (Fig- ure 1). Questions requiring the interpretation of laboratory results and identifying the num- ber of cases matching the case definition had the lowest number of attempts; the question asking if the outbreak should be investigated (following small group discussion) had the greatest number of answer attempts (Table 1). The postconference survey was completed by 66 respondents but did not ask specifi-
21
June 2023 • 4:73&1 4+ 3;.7432*39&1 *&19-
Powered by FlippingBook