Training the public health workforce from Albany to Zambia: technology lessons learned along the way

This article describes lessons learned by the University at Albany Center for Public Health Preparedness (UA-CPHP) in using three technologies to deliver preparedness training for public health professionals in New York State. These three technologies are: 1. Audience response system (ARS, or the "clicker" system)--Purchased to improve engagement of all participants in heterogeneous training audiences, it also markedly reduces staff time while improving training evaluation (cost: $4,500). 2. Satellite broadcast programs--UA-CPHP produced more than 50 broadcasts, which remain available as videostreams and/or podcasts. Viewership of archived programs sometimes surpasses that of the live event (cost estimate: $23,000 to $39,000). 3. Interactive online courses--Seventeen courses have registered more than 44,000 learners worldwide. The Pandemic Influenza course alone has reached more than 16,000 registrants from all 50 U.S. states and at least 56 other countries (cost estimate: $30,000 to $65,000). UA-CPHP's experience as a preparedness training center has confirmed that contemporary technology can be employed to improve and increase the reach of these training efforts. An additional finding was that, quite unintentionally, the intensive use of distance-based educational modalities designed to reach public health practitioners in New York State has afforded UA-CPHP a substantial national and international audience as well, and at no additional cost.