Stories

Category: Writing

  • Against chocolate-covered broccoli: text-based alternatives to expensive multimedia content

    Against chocolate-covered broccoli: text-based alternatives to expensive multimedia content

    The great multimedia content deception

    Learning teams spend millions on dressing up content with multimedia.

    The premise is always the same: better graphics equal better learning.

    The evidence tells a different story.

    The focus on the presentation and transmission of content represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how learning actually works in our complex world.

    Multimedia content: the stakes have changed

    In a world confronting unprecedented challenges—from climate change to global health crises, from artificial intelligence to geopolitical instability—the stakes for learning have never been higher.

    We need citizens and professionals capable of critical thinking, navigating uncertainty, grappling with complex systems, and collaborating effectively with artificial intelligence as a co-worker.

    Yet much of our educational technology investment continues to chase the glittering promise of multimedia enhancement, as if adding more visual stimulation and interactive elements will somehow transform passive consumers into active knowledge creators.

    The traditional transmissive model—knowledge flowing one-way from expert to learner—has become counterproductive.

    In a world where information is abundant but wisdom is scarce, the critical question is not how to transmit information efficiently, but how to create environments that cultivate higher-order capabilities.

    If not multimedia content, then what?

    Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis identify seven affordances that distinguish effective digital learning from traditional instruction.

    None involve multimedia enhancement.

    Instead, they emphasize ubiquitous learning that transcends boundaries; active knowledge production by learners themselves; recursive feedback that transforms assessment into dialogue; collaborative intelligence that emerges from structured interaction; metacognitive reflection that builds learning capacity; and differentiated pathways that personalize without sacrificing community.

    This framework reframes education’s purpose: not delivering content, but designing ecologies for knowledge creation.

    Consuming multimedia content is not learning

    The critical distinction lost in educational technology discussions is between learning resources and learning processes.

    A video or simulation is content—not learning itself.

    Learning is the activity that the learner does.

    At The Geneva Learning Foundation, we work with over 70,000 health practitioners globally using a structured cycle of action and reflection.

    The main medium is text.

    But the role of text is far more profound than content delivery.

    In our climate and health programme, for example, the primary learning resource is a collection of text-based eyewitness accounts from learners in our Teach to Reach programme.

    A practitioner in Nigeria shares a written story of how extreme heat forces people to sleep outdoors, increasing their exposure to malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

    Learners read this and many other real-world experiences.

    The learning activity is not to memorize this fact.

    Instead, a learner in Brazil will analyze a “chain reaction” from change in climate to health consequences in writing, grounded in their own experience with flooding and diarrheal disease.

    Then, she will receive structured, written feedback from colleagues in Chad, Ghana, and India, guided by a detailed rubric.

    The “content” is the collective written experience of the peer group.

    Similarly, in our 16-day peer learning exercise on health equity, learners do not study abstract theories of justice from a textbook.

    Instead, they write a detailed project analyzing a real-world inequity they face.

    A health worker might document how their system’s design consistently fails to reach nomadic pastoralist communities.

    The learning happens in the subsequent, text-based peer review, where colleagues use a rubric to help the author deepen their root cause analysis and refine their action plan.

    In both cases, the engine of learning is the activity—creating, analyzing, evaluating, collaborating—and text is the medium for that activity.

    We do not invest in costly multimedia production because the engagement happens in robust, structured peer interactions that drive authentic learning.

    The experiences shared by learners, what they construct individually, becomes the collective corpus through which learning becomes continuous – and helps turn knowledge into action.

    The cognitive case for the superiority of text over multimedia content

    Cognitive Load Theory explains that working memory—where we process new information—is extremely limited.

    This mental capacity has three components: intrinsic load (the material’s inherent difficulty), extraneous load (effort wasted on poorly designed instruction), and germane load (productive effort leading to deep learning).

    Critical thinking, analysis, and metacognition have very high intrinsic loads.

    Learners are already engaged in demanding mental work.

    Any instructional element adding unnecessary complexity steals finite cognitive resources from actual learning.

    Multimedia “enhancements”—distracting animations, irrelevant images, redundant text—do precisely this.

    They may feel engaging, but research shows this perceived engagement does not translate to better outcomes and can be detrimental.

    Well-structured text is cognitively “quiet.”

    It presents information cleanly, allowing learners to dedicate maximum mental energy to understanding and applying complex ideas.

    The unique affordances of text

    Text possesses structural characteristics exceptionally suited for higher-order thinking.

    Its linear nature builds coherent, sequential, evidence-based arguments, modeling logical reasoning processes.

    Unlike transient video or audio, text is stable—it can be revisited, scrutinized, annotated, and cross-referenced at the learner’s pace, enabling the deep analysis required by our peer review rubrics.

    Written language excels at conveying abstract concepts, nuanced theories, and complex principles—the building blocks of fields requiring sophisticated thinking and “thick knowledge”.

    Studies consistently show writing improves critical thinking skills like analysis and inference.

    Comparative studies in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) reveal that adding multimedia does not reliably improve outcomes.

    Some find no significant difference between text-based and multimedia-enhanced cases.

    Others find video actively hinders learning by making it harder to identify and review key information during collaborative analysis.

    The virtual reality paradox

    Some education innovators continue to be mesmerized by the promise of virtual or augmented reality.

    They are often the same individuals who previously touted “gamification” as a panacea for learning.

    Virtual reality represents the ultimate multimedia format, promising immersive simulations that proponents claim will revolutionize education.

    Yet the biggest investments so far have been spectacular failures.

    For example, Mark Zuckerberg’s massive bet on virtual learning environments, despite billions invested, failed to demonstrate educational superiority over traditional methods.

    The pattern repeats across educational technology: the more immersive and visually impressive the technology, the more it distracts from the cognitive work learning requires.

    This helps to understand why, by contrast, text-based generative AI chatbots so rapidly became part of teaching and learning.

    Students may be amazed by virtual experiences, but amazement does not translate to learning outcomes.

    The AI factor

    As artificial intelligence becomes capable of generating sophisticated multimedia content, human learners need complementary skills: critical analysis of AI-generated materials, collaborative meaning-making across perspectives, and creative synthesis of complex information.

    Text-based learning environments naturally develop these capabilities.

    When students analyze written arguments, provide peer feedback through structured rubrics, and revise thinking based on diverse perspectives, they practice the analytical and collaborative thinking that will distinguish them in an AI-enhanced world.

    The economic dead end of multimedia content

    Multimedia content may become obsolete quickly, requiring constant updates.

    A typical multimedia learning module is expensive to develop and maintain.

    A thoughtfully structured text-based peer review process costs a fraction of that amount but creates value every time learners engage with it, building individual skills and collective knowledge that compound over time.

    In our programmes spanning multiple continents and diverse health contexts—from emergency response training to climate health education—we demonstrate measurably better learning outcomes with text-based approaches.

    Our methodology focuses on evidence-based peer learning emphasizing learner autonomy, competence, and community connection—outcomes that text-based environments support more effectively than multimedia alternatives.

    Beyond the false choice

    This argument does not advocate technological poverty in education.

    Digital platforms enable collaboration and knowledge sharing impossible in previous eras.

    Innovation and investment are vital.

    The key lies in distinguishing between technology that amplifies human interaction and technology that attempts to substitute for it.

    Text-based learning environments scale to support thousands while maintaining human connections essential for deep learning.

    They accommodate diverse learning styles without sacrificing intellectual rigor.

    They integrate seamlessly with AI tools that help organize and synthesize ideas without replacing human judgment and creativity.

    Most importantly, they focus investment where learning happens: in structured interaction between learners, feedback loops that refine understanding, collaborative processes that create knowledge, and metacognitive reflection that builds learning capacity.

    The path forward

    The multimedia deception persists because it aligns with intuitive but erroneous beliefs about learning and technology.

    More sophisticated presentations seem like obvious improvements.

    But learning operates by different rules than information processing.

    Institutions serious about educational effectiveness should reject the multimedia mirage.

    This means redirecting technology budgets from content production to learning infrastructure.

    It means training experts to facilitate text-based dialogue scaffolded by rubrics and experience, rather than spend time building multimedia presentations.

    It means measuring learning outcomes rather than student satisfaction scores.

    In a world demanding critical thinking, systems awareness, and collaborative intelligence, we need approaches that develop these capabilities directly.

    The multimedia bells and whistles that capture our attention and resources actively impede the kind of learning our complex world requires.

    The future of educational technology lies in thoughtful structuring of human interaction and knowledge creation.

    Text provides the foundation precisely because it demands the active cognitive engagement that multimedia often circumvents.

    References

    1. Berrocal, Y., Regan, J., Fisher, J., Darr, A., Hammersmith, L., Aiyer, M., 2021. Implementing Rubric-Based Peer Review for Video Microlecture Design in Health Professions Education. Med.Sci.Educ. 31, 1761–1765. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01437-1
    2. Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., 2013. Towards a New Learning: The Scholar Social Knowledge Workspace, in Theory and Practice. E-Learning and Digital Media 10, 332–356. https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2013.10.4.332
    3. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (Eds.). (2016). e-Learning Ecologies: Principles for New Learning and Assessment. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315699935
    4. Feenberg, A., 1989. The written world: On the theory and practice of computer conferencing, in: Mason, R., Kaye, A. (Eds.), Mindweave: Communication, Computers, and Distance Education. Pergamon Press, pp. 22–39.
    5. Fenesi, B., Sana, F., Kim, J. A., & Shore, D. I. (2014). Learners misperceive the benefits of redundant text in multimedia learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 710. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00710
    6. Mayer, R. E. (2008). Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction. American Psychologist, 63(8), 760-769. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.8.760
    7. Pereles, A., Ortega-Ruipérez, B., Lázaro, M. (2024). The power of metacognitive strategies to enhance critical thinking in online learning. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 14(3), 831-843. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.2721
    8. Rivas, S. F., Saiz, C., & Ossa, C. (2022). Metacognitive strategies and development of critical thinking in higher education. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 913219. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.913219
    9. Sweller, J. (2005). Implications of cognitive load theory for multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (pp. 19-30). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816819.003
    10. Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive Load Theory. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8126-4
    11. Tarchi, C. (2021). Learning from text, video, or subtitles: A comparative analysis. Computers & Education, 160, 104034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104034

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

  • Richard Mayer’s research on multimedia for learning actually proves text works better

    Richard Mayer’s research on multimedia for learning actually proves text works better

    Educational technology professionals cite Richard Mayer’s 2008 study more than any other research on multimedia instruction.

    They are citing the wrong conclusion.

    Mayer did not prove multimedia enhances learning.

    He proved multimedia creates cognitive problems requiring ten different workarounds – and accidentally built the case for text-based instruction.

    What Richard Mayer actually found

    Through hundreds of controlled experiments, Richard Mayer identified ten principles for multimedia design.

    The pattern is striking: most principles involve removing elements from presentations.

    Five principles focus on reducing “extraneous processing” – cognitive waste that multimedia creates.

    1. Remove irrelevant material.
    2. Highlight essential information buried among distractions.
    3. Eliminate simultaneous animation, narration, and text because learners perform better with only two elements.
    4. Place corresponding words and pictures close together.
    5. Present them simultaneously, not sequentially.

    Three principles manage “essential processing” when content is complex.

    1. Break presentations into learner-controlled segments.
    2. Use spoken rather than printed text with graphics.
    3. Provide pre-training before complex multimedia instruction.

    Two principles foster deeper learning.

    1. Combine words and pictures rather than words alone.
    2. Use conversational rather than formal language.

    The hidden message: multimedia instruction is so cognitively demanding that it requires ten specialized principles to avoid harming learning.

    Richard Mayer’s split attention revelation

    Mayer’s modality principle seems to endorse multimedia: learners perform better with graphics plus spoken text than graphics plus printed text.

    Educational technologists celebrate this as proof that multimedia works.

    They miss the real insight.

    Graphics with printed text create split attention – learners cannot simultaneously look at pictures while reading words.

    They must constantly switch between visual elements, wasting cognitive resources on coordination rather than learning.

    Richard Mayer’s solution uses different channels: visual graphics with auditory narration.

    But this still requires complex mental coordination between multiple input streams while maintaining focus on learning objectives.

    Text-based instruction eliminates split attention entirely.

    (There are deeply-rooted cultural and historical reasons for the distrust of text.)

    Learners process information through one coherent channel that naturally supports sequential, analytical thinking.

    The damage control principles in Richard Mayer’s principles

    Step back from individual findings and Mayer’s principles reveal themselves as damage control.

    The coherence principle removes distractions that multimedia introduces.

    The redundancy principle eliminates conflicts between competing inputs.

    The segmenting principle provides control that multimedia complexity demands.

    The pre-training principle prepares learners for cognitive challenges that simpler instruction avoids.

    Each principle represents additional design constraints requiring specialized expertise and extensive testing.

    They exist because multimedia instruction is fundamentally problematic.

    Text extends Richard Mayer’s logic

    At The Geneva Learning Foundation, we work with 70,000 health practitioners using text-based peer learning.

    Nigerian practitioners write about extreme heat forcing people to sleep outdoors, increasing malaria exposure.

    Colleagues in Brazil, Chad, Ghana, and India read these accounts, analyze climate-health connections, and provide structured feedback through expert-designed rubrics.

    No graphics.

    No audio coordination.

    No split attention problems.

    Read our article: Against chocolate-covered broccoli: text-based alternatives to expensive multimedia content

    Direct engagement with content that supports rather than complicates learning.

    This approach achieves Richard Mayer’s goals through elimination rather than optimization.

    Ultimate coherence by presenting only essential information.

    Zero redundancy through single-channel processing.

    Natural segmenting through text’s inherent reader control.

    No pre-training needed because text presents information in logical, sequential structures.

    The multimedia principle reconsidered

    Mayer’s most famous finding – people learn better from words and pictures than words alone – deserves scrutiny.

    This emerged from comparing passive multimedia consumption to passive text reading.

    It equates learning with recall.

    Neither condition included structured peer interaction, collaborative analysis, or iterative revision that characterize more complex learning.

    When learners create knowledge through text-based peer learning, they achieve outcomes that passive consumption of any media cannot match.

    The effect size for active text-based learning exceeds Mayer’s multimedia findings while avoiding cognitive coordination problems.

    The economic evidence

    Mayer’s ten principles exist because multimedia design is expensive and complex.

    Each principle represents additional constraints demanding specialized expertise.

    Typical multimedia modules are expensive.

    Text-based peer learning costs a fraction of this amount while producing superior outcomes.

    Resources should flow toward learning infrastructure such as expert rubrics and facilitated dialogue – elements that actually drive learning rather than manage cognitive problems.

    The real choice

    Educational technology leaders face a fundamental decision: invest in managing multimedia’s problems or adopt approaches that avoid those problems entirely.

    Mayer’s research illuminates multimedia’s cognitive costs.

    His ten principles represent sophisticated damage control, not learning enhancement.

    They minimize harm rather than maximize potential.

    Text-based instruction honors Mayer’s deeper insights while rejecting surface implications.

    It achieves the cognitive efficiency his principles attempt to restore to multimedia environments.

    References

    1. Berrocal, Y., Regan, J., Fisher, J., Darr, A., Hammersmith, L., Aiyer, M., 2021. Implementing Rubric-Based Peer Review for Video Microlecture Design in Health Professions Education. Med.Sci.Educ. 31, 1761–1765. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01437-1
    2. Clark, R.C., Mayer, R.E. (Eds.), 2016. e‐Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, 1st ed. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119239086
    3. Feenberg, A. The written world: On the theory and practice of computer conferencing. Mindweave: Communication, computers, and distance education 22–39 (1989).
    4. Mayer, R.E., 2008. Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction. American Psychologist 63, 760–769. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.8.760
    5. Mayer, R.E., 2005. Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, in: Mayer, R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press, pp. 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816819.004
    6. Mayer, R.E., Heiser, J., Lonn, S., 2001. Cognitive constraints on multimedia learning: When presenting more material results in less understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology 93, 187–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.1.187
    7. Mayer, R.E., Moreno, R., 2003. Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist 38, 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6
    8. Mayer, R.E., Moreno, R., 2002. Animation as an Aid to Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychology Review 14, 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013184611077
    9. Plass, J.L., Chun, D.M., Mayer, R.E., Leutner, D., 2003. Cognitive load in reading a foreign language text with multimedia aids and the influence of verbal and spatial abilities. Computers in Human Behavior 19, 221–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0747-5632(02)00015-8
    10. Sweller, J., 2005. Implications of Cognitive Load Theory for Multimedia Learning, in: Mayer, R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816819.003

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

  • The great technical assistance disruption: How peer networks outperform experts at a fraction of the cost

    The great technical assistance disruption: How peer networks outperform experts at a fraction of the cost

    “If health workers do not share their challenges and solutions, we are bound to fail.” This declaration from a participant in the Teach to Reach initiative facilitated by The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) cuts to the heart of a crisis that has long plagued global health technical assistance: the persistent gap between what external experts provide and what practitioners actually need.

    At the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), TGLF’s Reda Sadki presented evidence of a quiet revolution taking place in how global health organizations approach capacity building and technical assistance. His research and practice demonstrate that digitally-enabled peer learning can overcome fundamental limitations that have constrained traditional models for decades. The implications challenge not just how we train health workers, but the entire infrastructure of expert-driven technical assistance that dominates global health.

    Why we resist learning from screens

    To understand why this revolution has been so long in coming, Sadki traced our resistance to digital learning back to philosophical roots that run deeper than most global health practitioners realize. The skepticism, he argued, stems from a fundamental assumption about how real learning occurs — an assumption that shapes everything from how we design training programs to how we structure technical assistance.

    “Plato initiated our traditional negative view of the written word,” Sadki explained, describing how the ancient philosopher believed that writing “detaches the message from its author and transforms it into a dead thing, a text.” For Plato, authentic learning required direct interaction between teacher and student. Anything mediated — whether by writing or, by extension, digital technology — was considered a pale imitation of real knowledge transfer.

    This ancient skepticism persists in modern global health, where the dominant assumption is that learning means recalling information and teaching means transmitting that information through direct instruction. Face-to-face workshops and expert-led training sessions are considered “real” technical assistance, while digital alternatives are viewed as convenient but inferior substitutes.

    “It is a false dichotomy to distinguish between, to oppose our lived reality to the digital one,” Sadki argued. “The digital one is lived also. It is also reality.” Yet this dichotomy continues to shape technical assistance models that prioritize flying experts around the world to deliver content in person, even when evidence suggests digital approaches may be more effective.

    Indeed, the evidence is striking. Two major meta-analyses comparing learning modalities found that “distance learning results have been consistently better” than traditional face-to-face approaches, “and that has been the case since 1991.” Yet global health technical assistance remains largely wedded to what Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis call a “didactic learning architecture” — the familiar setup where external experts deliver content to passive recipients arranged “in rows, they do not speak to each other, the teacher sits at the front.”

    When information transmission fails

    The inadequacy of information transmission models becomes clear when considering the nature of challenges that health workers actually face. Most global health training assumes that the problem is a lack of information — that if practitioners simply knew more facts or protocols, they would perform better. This assumption drives technical assistance focused on delivering standardized content through lectures, presentations, and workshops.

    But research in learning science reveals a more complex reality. “When knowledge is a river, not a reservoir, process, not a product,” expert-led information transmission breaks down, Sadki observed. Modern knowledge workers have “around 10 percent” of the knowledge they need “right there in your brain,” with “90 percent of what you need to know going to come from other humans, or increasingly from machines.”

    This insight challenges the foundation of traditional technical assistance. If practitioners need to access knowledge through connections rather than storage, then the goal should not be filling their heads with information but connecting them to networks where knowledge flows. Yet most capacity building programs continue to focus on what Sadki called “content-driven learning” rather than connection-driven learning.

    The shift required is profound. Rather than positioning external experts as the primary source of knowledge, effective technical assistance must create what Connell Foley described as “a fundamental shift from being an expert who provides answers, to being a facilitator who, through critical thought, can develop questions that prompt others to analyze and develop strategies to address their own needs.”

    Digital technologies as technical assistance disruptors

    The breakthrough comes when digital technologies “enable you to defy distance and boundaries in order to connect with others and learn from them.” This represents more than technological innovation — it challenges the basic economics and power structures of traditional technical assistance.

    Consider the conventional model: international organizations identify capacity gaps, hire external experts, and deploy them to deliver training. This approach assumes that valid knowledge flows primarily from international experts to local practitioners. It requires significant funding for travel, venues, and expert fees, limiting both reach and frequency of interaction.

    Digitally-enabled peer learning turns this model on its head. “Peer learning has always been there,” Sadki noted. “Learning from others, learning from people who are like yourself has always been important, but it has been limited to those within your physical space.” Digital technologies remove that spatial limitation, enabling practitioners facing similar challenges across different contexts to learn directly from each other.

    Cristina Guerrero, an emergency health doctor who leads a helicopter rescue team in Cadiz, Spain, experienced this transformation through the foundation’s #Ambulance! programme with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “I thought I already knew how to face violence,” she reflected. “Then I heard how they do things in other parts of the world. I learned how I can do my work differently. I became mindful in new ways.”

    Her experience illustrates what traditional technical assistance models struggle to achieve: not just information transfer, but genuine transformation of practice. Sadki noted that peer learning produced “changes in mindfulness” — higher-order learning that most would consider “impossible to achieve by digital means.” Yet “digital combined with social and peer learning made it possible.”

    Evidence of a new technical assistance model

    TGLF’s collaboration with the World Health Organization, implementing 46 cohorts of peer learning initiatives focused on immunization and other technical areas, provided rigorous evidence that peer learning can replace traditional expert-led technical assistance. The first impact evaluation of this collaboration in January 2019 found that “these are more than just courses. These are interventions designed to foster and improve practice at every level.”

    This approach represents what researcher Alexandra Nastase and colleagues would recognize as a fourth model of technical assistance, beyond their three categories of capacity substitution, supplementation, and development. This model challenges fundamental assumptions about who holds valid knowledge and how capacity building should occur.

    The most dramatic validation came through TGLF’s Impact Accelerator mechanism. When 644 alumni signed a pledge to achieve impact in July 2019, something remarkable happened. “‘We are together’ became a slogan for the individuals involved,” Sadki observed. The measurable results were astonishing: participants who engaged in peer learning showed seven times higher rates of project implementation compared to a control group that did not engage in peer learning activities to support and learn from each other.

    The scale of subsequent initiatives has been even more striking. The Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030, launched in March 2022, grew to 6,185 participants in its first two weeks. In the first four months, more than 1,000 developed action plans, and over 4,000 joined a new Impact Accelerator. Within this period, 30 percent of participants reported successful implementation of their local projects — implementation rates that far exceed what traditional technical assistance typically achieves.

    Beyond the expert monopoly

    Perhaps most significantly, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s model has enabled practitioners to transcend traditional power structures and drive their own capacity building agendas. Rather than waiting for external technical assistance, practitioners began forming organic learning networks that generate solutions from the ground up.

    These examples illustrate a fundamental shift in the locus of knowledge creation. Traditional technical assistance assumes that solutions flow from international experts to local implementers. The foundation’s model demonstrates that practitioners facing similar challenges often hold the keys to solutions, and that the role of technical assistance should be creating conditions for them to learn from each other.

    Transforming the technical assistance paradigm

    The evidence points toward what Sadki called “an opportunity for transformation that may be much harder to achieve [than what we already know how to do], but with a far greater return on the investment.” The transformation involves “empowering health professionals to drive improvement from the ground up, connecting them to their peers, and linking to global guidance.”

    This requires fundamentally different approaches to capacity building. Instead of the traditional model where external experts deliver knowledge to passive recipients, effective peer learning creates what Sadki described as “circular, interactive configurations” where practitioners engage directly with each other’s experiences. The facilitation may be digital, but the knowledge exchange is profoundly collaborative.

    By systematically applying insights from social learning, networked learning, and digital learning, the foundation has created what amounts to “a human knowledge network” that “unites practitioners and those who support them in a shared pledge to turn knowledge into action.”

    The fact that these “recent advances in learning science remain largely unknown in global health, at least in some quarters” remains a challenge.

    The future of technical assistance

    As global health faces increasingly complex challenges — from climate change to pandemic preparedness to health system resilience — the ability to harness collective intelligence through peer learning may prove essential. The evidence suggests that effective solutions emerge not from more sophisticated expert-driven interventions, but from better systems for enabling practitioners to learn from each other.

    The implications extend beyond individual capacity building to systemic change. When health workers share challenges and solutions across contexts, they create what Sadki called “a river of knowledge” that practitioners can dip into when they need to solve a problem. This enables rapid adaptation and innovation at scales that traditional technical assistance cannot achieve.

    The revolution in global health technical assistance may ultimately be less about technology and more about recognition — acknowledging that expertise is distributed rather than concentrated, and that the future lies not in perfecting systems for delivering knowledge from experts to practitioners, but in creating conditions for practitioners to take action by combining what they know because they are there every day with the best available global knowledge – reshaping global knowledge in the process.

    References

    Feenberg, A., 1989. The written world: On the theory and practice of computer conferencing, in: Mason, R., Kaye, A. (Eds.), Mindweave: Communication, Computers, and Distance Education. Pergamon Press, pp. 22–39.

    Foley, C., 2008. Developing critical thinking in NGO field staff. Development in Practice 18, 774–778. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614520802386827

    Jurgenson, N., 2012. The IRL Fetish. The New Inquiry 6.

    Kalantzis M, Cope B. Didactic literacy pedagogy. In: Literacies. Cambridge University Press; 2012:63-94.

    Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., Jones, K., 2010. Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. U.S. Department of Education  Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development  Policy and Program Studies Service.

    Nastase, A., Rajan, A., French, B., Bhattacharya, D., 2020. Towards reimagined technical assistance: the current policy options and opportunities for change. Gates Open Res 4, 180. https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.13204.1

    Neumann, Y., Shachar, M., 2010. Twenty Years of Research on the Academic Performance Differences Between Traditional and Distance Learning: Summative Meta-Analysis and Trend Examination. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 6.

    Sadki, R. (2022). Learning for Knowledge Creation: The WHO Scholar Program. Reda Sadki. https://doi.org/10.59350/j4ptf-x6x22

    Sadki, R. (2023). Learning-based complex work: how to reframe learning and development. Reda Sadki. https://doi.org/10.59350/7fe95-1fz14

    Sadki, R. (2024). Knowing-in-action: Bridging the theory-practice divide in global health. Reda Sadki. https://doi.org/10.59350/4evj5-vm802

    Watkins, K.E., Sandmann, L.R., Dailey, C.A., Li, B., Yang, S.-E., Galen, R.S., Sadki, R., 2022. Accelerating problem-solving capacities of sub-national public health professionals: an evaluation of a digital immunization training intervention. BMC Health Services Research 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08138-4

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  • Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

    Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

    This article is based on Reda Sadki’s presentation at the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable” on 6 March 2025. Learn more about the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Get insights from professionals who support Ukrainian children.

    “I understood that if we want to cry, we can cry,” reflected a practitioner in the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine – illustrating the kind of personal transformation that complements technical training.

    During the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable”, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Reda Sadki explained how peer learning provides value that traditional training alone cannot deliver. The EU-funded program on Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children demonstrates that practitioners gain five specific benefits:

    First, peer learning reveals contextual wisdom missing from standardized guidance. While technical training provides general principles, practitioners encounter varied situations requiring adaptation. When Serhii Federov helped a frightened girl during rocket strikes by focusing on her teddy bear, he discovered an approach not found in manuals: “This exercise helped the girl switch her focus from the situation around her to caring for the bear.”

    Second, practitioners document pattern recognition across diverse cases. Sadki shared how analysis of practitioner experiences revealed that “PFA extends beyond emergency situations into everyday environments” and “children often invent their own therapeutic activities when given space.” These insights help practitioners recognize which approaches work in specific contexts.

    Third, peer learning validates experiential knowledge. One practitioner described how simple acknowledgment of feelings often produced visible relief in children, while another found that basic physical comforts had significant psychological impact. These observations, when shared and confirmed across multiple practitioners, build confidence in approaches that might otherwise seem too simple.

    Fourth, the network provides real-time problem-solving for urgent challenges. During fortnightly PFA Connect sessions, practitioners discuss immediate issues like “supporting children under three years” or “recognizing severe reactions requiring referrals.” As Sadki explained, these sessions produce concise “key learning points” summarizing practical solutions practitioners can immediately apply.

    Finally, peer learning builds professional identity and resilience. “There’s a lot of trust in our network,” Sadki quoted from a participant, demonstrating how sharing experiences reduces isolation and builds a supportive community where practitioners can acknowledge their own emotions and challenges.

    The webinar highlighted how this approach creates measurable impact, with practitioners developing case studies that transform tacit knowledge into documented evidence and structured feedback that helps discover blind spots in their practice.

    For practitioners interested in joining, Sadki outlined multiple entry points from microlearning modules completed in under an hour to more intensive peer learning exercises, all designed to strengthen support to children while building practitioners’ own professional capabilities.

    This project is funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of TGLF, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

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

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

    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.

    The Collaborative’s innovative approach focuses on empowering health workers to identify root causes of local immunization challenges and develop practical, context-specific solutions.

    As the initiative continues to grow, with new members joining daily, it could help shift how Nigeria approaches immunization capacity building and problem-solving.

    Right after the final Assembly on 6 August 2024, Nigeria immunization specialist Jenny Sequeira and The Geneva Learning Foundation’s deputy director Charlotte Mbuh shared their initial thoughts about the exercise.

    Here are 7 key takeaways from their discussion.

    1. Critical Thinking Evolution: Participants made significant progress in their analytical skills, moving from vague problem statements to nuanced understanding of local immunization challenges. The “5 Whys” technique proved particularly effective.

    2. Power of Peer Review: The structured, time-bound peer review process emerged as a practical learning tool, fostering self-reflection and exposing participants to diverse perspectives.

    3. Leveling the Playing Field: The Collaborative created an environment where hierarchies dissolved, enabling workers from the local levels to engage laterally with state and national-level participants.

    4. Focus on Actionable Solutions: Participants were encouraged to identify root causes within their control, promoting practical, context-specific solutions.

    5. Importance of Community Engagement: The process highlighted the crucial role of engaging communities and addressing barriers to improve vaccine uptake.

    6. Emphasis on Implementation: While the RCA exercise was valuable, leaders stressed the critical need for follow-through and implementation of proposed solutions.

    7. Cross-Sector Collaboration: The collaborative saw participation from diverse stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society organizations, and private sector entities.

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024

  • Semaine mondiale de la vaccination: Que voyez-vous?

    Semaine mondiale de la vaccination: Que voyez-vous?

    English version | Version française

    Ceci est la préface de la nouvelle publication Les visages de la vaccination. En savoir plus… Télécharger la collection…

    Chaque jour, des milliers d’agents de santé, de l’Afghanistan au Zimbabwe, se lèvent et se rendent au travail avec un seul objectif en tête : faire en sorte que les vaccins parviennent à ceux qui en ont besoin.

    À l’occasion de la Semaine mondiale de la vaccination du 24 au 30 avril 2023 et du lancement de la campagne « Big Catch Up », la Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF) a invité les membres du Mouvement pour la vaccination à l’horizon 2030 (IA2030) à partager des photographies d’eux-mêmes et de leur travail quotidien.

    Plus de 1 000 témoignages visuels ont été partagés.

    Il ne s’agit pas de clichés soigneusement composés et techniquement élaborés par des photographes professionnels, mais plutôt d’une vue authentique sur ce que signifie la vaccination dans la pratique. Les difficultés de transport. Les mères concernées et aimantes. Les curieux. Le dialogue entre les praticiens et les membres de la communauté. Les écoliers brandissant leur carte de vaccination. Les cahiers contenant les données.

    Voici donc notre deuxième galerie annuelle de photographies partagées par les membres du Mouvement. Une fois encore, elle célèbre la diversité de leurs rôles et des défis auxquels ils sont confrontés dans leur vie quotidienne, ainsi que leur engagement en faveur du Programme pour la vaccination à l’horizon 2030 (IA2030), qui vise à ce que chaque enfant, chaque famille, soit protégés contre les maladies évitables par la vaccination.

    Si nous avons réitéré cette opération, c’est parce que nous avons observé que la narration visuelle avait un effet profond sur l’ensemble du Mouvement. Cet effet peut être difficile à quantifier. En soi, il n’améliore certainement pas la couverture vaccinale. Il a tout à voir avec la façon dont les agents de santé se perçoivent eux-mêmes, perçoivent la valeur de leur propre travail. En effet, le fait non seulement de savoir, mais aussi de voir qu’il y a des collègues dans le monde entier qui font le même travail, quel que soit le contexte, est réconfortant et inspirant. Cela peut contribuer à renforcer ou à renouveler la détermination et l’engagement. Cela peut aider à faire la différence – et à la maintenir dans le temps.

    Certains professionnels de la santé travaillent dans des centres de santé offrant des services de vaccination et d’autres formes de soins de santé primaires. D’autres prennent part à des stratégies avancées, allant à la rencontre de la population. Ils peuvent également être basés dans des bureaux de district ou régionaux, où ils assurent la supervision et des conseils pour permettre aux praticiens de mieux faire leur travail.

    Pour ceux qui contribuent aux activités de sensibilisation, ils peuvent être confrontés à de multiples défis. Ils peuvent avoir à surmonter des obstacles géographiques : rivières, inondations, routes en mauvais état, ou simplement de longues distances. Ils peuvent être amenés à s’aventurer dans des zones d’instabilité politique ou de conflit. Ils peuvent être amenés à entrer en contact avec des populations mobiles dont la localisation précise peut être incertaine. Enfin, ils peuvent être amenés à pénétrer dans des zones urbaines informelles en perpétuel changement.

    Une fois arrivés à destination, ils constatent parfois que les personnes qu’ils contactent ne sont pas forcément réceptives à la vaccination. Ils devront alors passer du temps avec les gens pour les aider à comprendre les bénéfices et la sécurité de la vaccination.

    Bien entendu, la vaccination proprement dite n’est pas la seule tâche à accomplir. Les programmes de vaccination s’appuient sur un réseaux de personnes ayant des rôles divers, tels que l’entretien des équipements essentiels de la chaîne du froid, la gestion des données et la collaboration avec les communautés pour obtenir leur soutien en faveur de la vaccination. Les volontaires issus de la communauté constituent un lien vital entre les programmes de vaccination et les communautés locales. Un travail d’équipe efficace est essentiel.

    À la fin d’une longue journée, chaque praticien de la vaccination peut rentrer chez lui en sachant qu’il a contribué à rendre le monde plus sain et qu’il a peut-être sauvé une vie. Ce sont les véritables héros de la vaccination, et nous les saluons. 

    Charlotte Mbuh et Reda Sadki
    La Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF)

  • Five examples of double-loop learning in global health

    Five examples of double-loop learning in global health

    Read this first: What is double-loop learning in global health?

    Example 1: Addressing low uptake of a vaccine program

    Single–Loop Learning: Improve logistics and supply chain management to ensure consistent vaccine availability at clinics.

    Double–Loop Learning: Engage with community leaders to understand cultural beliefs and concerns around vaccination, and co-design a more localized and trustworthy immunization strategy.

    What is the difference? Double-loop learning questions the assumption that the primary goal should be to increase uptake at all costs. It considers whether the program design respects community autonomy and addresses their real concerns. It may surface competing values of public health impact vs. community self-determination.

    Example 2: Responding to an infectious disease outbreak

    Single–Loop Learning: Rapidly mobilize health workers and supplies to affected areas to contain the outbreak following established emergency protocols.

    Double–Loop Learning: Critically examine why the health system was vulnerable to this outbreak, and work with communities to redesign surveillance, preparedness and response systems to be more resilient.

    What is the difference? Double-loop learning interrogates whether the existing outbreak response system is built on the value of health equity. It asks if the system privileges the needs of some populations over others and perpetuates historical power imbalances. It strives to create a more inclusive, participatory approach to defining outbreak preparedness and response priorities.

    Example 3: Implementing a maternal health intervention that shows low adherence

    Single–Loop Learning: Retrain health providers to improve their counseling skills and provide better patient education on the intervention.

    Double–Loop Learning: Conduct participatory research with women and families to understand their needs, preferences and barriers to care-seeking, and collaborate with them to iteratively adapt the intervention design.

    What is the difference? Double-loop learning challenges the implicit assumption that the intervention design is inherently correct and that non-adherence is a ‘user error’. It examines whether the intervention embodies values of respect, humility and co-creation with communities. It seeks to align the intervention with women’s self-articulated reproductive health values and preferences.

    Example 4: Evaluating an underperforming community health worker (CHW) program

    Single–Loop Learning: Strengthen CHW supervision, increase performance incentives, and optimize the ratio of CHWs to households.

    Double–Loop Learning: Facilitate a joint reflection process with CHWs and community representatives to examine program strengths, challenges and equity gaps, and co-create a revised strategy that better aligns with community priorities and integrates CHWs’ insights.

    What is the difference? Double-loop learning questions whether the CHW program is driven by the value of empowering communities as agents of their own health vs. treating CHWs as an instrument of technocratic public health aims. It re-centers the program on the value of CHW leadership and community-driven problem definition.

    Example 5: Reforming a health financing policy to improve population coverage

    Single–Loop Learning: Adjust the premium amounts, enrollment processes and benefit package based on initial uptake data.

    Double–Loop Learning: Convene citizen panels and key stakeholders to deliberate on the fundamental goals and values underlying the financing reforms, and recommend redesigning the policy to better advance equity and financial protection.

    What is the difference? Double-loop learning interrogates whether the true intent of the policy is to advance equity and financial protection for marginalized groups or simply to expand coverage as an end unto itself. It opens up debate on the core values and theory of change underlying the reforms. It aims to re-anchor the policy in a wholistic vision of equitable universal health coverage.

  • Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

    Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

    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.

    Mitigating the impact of such shadows on communities will test the resilience of health infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and especially challenge frontline health workers. The need for effective and cost-efficient public health interventions, such as immunization, will evolve and grow.

    Health workers, approximately 70% of which are women, that provide immunization and other health services will be trusted local resources to the communities they serve, further amplifying their centrality in resilient health systems.

    Listening to and building upon the experiences and insights of frontline health workers as they live with and increasingly work to address the manifestations of climate change on health is pivotal to the collective, global response today and in the years to come.

    We imagine a future of health workers connected to each other, learning directly from the successes and challenges of others by choosing to engage in digital, peer-supported, peer-learning networks regardless of the remoteness or location of their communities. Success will lie in a nimbleness and ability to quickly see new emerging patterns and respond to evolving needs of individuals and communities.

    Such a future shines a light on the importance of new ways of thinking about global health, leadership, who should have a “voice”, starting from a position of equity not hierarchy, and the value that peers ascribe to each other. The hyperlocal impact of climate change on health cannot be mitigated only through global pronouncements and national policies. It requires local knowledge and understanding.

    Recognizing this unique position of health workers, Bridges to Development and The Geneva Learning Foundation, two Swiss non-profits, are supporting this first-ever, large peer-learning event for frontline health workers to share their experiences and insights on climate change and health.

    More than 1,100 health workers have already shared their observations of changes in climate and health affecting the communities they serve in over 60 countries. They will be sharing their stories and insights at the Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change, but you can already read short summaries from Guatemala; India and Mongolia; Bénin, Gambia, and Kenya.

    Starting from a Call to Action shared through the Movement for Immunization Agenda (IA2030), the call has “gone viral” through local communities and districts: over 4,500 people – most of them government workers involved in primary health care services in LMICs – registered to participate and contribute.

    Almost every health worker responding says that they are very worried about climate change, and that, for them, it is already a grave threat to the health of the communities they serve.

    Taken together, their observations, while imperfect, paint a daunting picture. This picture, consistent with global statistics and other data, helps to bring to life global pronouncements of the dire implications of climate change for health in LMICs.

    Amid this immense and dire challenge lies an opportunity to shift from a rigid, academically-dominated approach to a decentralized, democratized recognition and learning about the health impacts of climate change. This shift underscores the importance of amplifying insights from those who are bearing the brunt of the consequences of climate change, and recognizing the special role of health service workers as bridges between their communities and those working elsewhere to address similar challenges.

    This perspective requires those of us working at the global level to critically evaluate and challenge our biases and assumptions. The notion that only climate or health specialists can offer meaningful insights or credible solutions should be questioned. The understanding of climate change’s impact on epidemiology of disease, mental health and other manifestations – and the strategies employed to mitigate them – can be substantially enriched and sharpened by welcoming the voices of those on the frontlines. By doing so, we can foster a more comprehensive, inclusive, equitable and effective response to the challenges posed by climate change.

    The thousands of members of the Movement for the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) and others who have initiated this global dialogue around climate and health may be forging a new path, showing the feasibility and value of the global health community listening to and supporting the potential of frontline health workers to shine the brightest of lights into the shadow cast worldwide by climate change.

    This editorial is a contribution to the Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change.

    About the authors

    Julie Jacobson and Alan Brooks are co-founders and managing partners of Bridges to Development. Jacobson was the president of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in 2020-2021. Bridges to Development, a nonprofit founded in 2018 based in Europe and the US, strives to build on the world’s significant progress to date towards a stronger and more resilient future.

    Reda Sadki and Charlotte Mbuh lead the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF). The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is a non-profit implementing its vision to catalyze transformation through large scale peer and mentoring networks led by frontline actors facing critical threats to our societies. Learn more: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7316466.

    Illustration: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2023. All rights reserved.

  • Digital challenge-based learning in the COVID-19 Peer Hub

    A digital human knowledge and action network of health workers: Challenging established notions of learning in global health

    When Prof Rupert Wegerif introduced DEFI in his blog post, he argued that recent technologies will transform the notions and practice of education. The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is demonstrating this concept in the field of global health, specifically immunization, through the ongoing engagement of thousands of health workers in digital peer learning.

    As images of ambulance queues across Europe filled TV screens in 2020, another discussion was starting: how would COVID-19 affect countries with weaker health systems but more experience in facing epidemic outbreaks?

    In the global immunization community, there were early signs that ongoing efforts to protect children from vaccine preventable diseases – measles, polio, diphtheria – would suffer. On the ground, there were early reports of health workers being afraid to work, being excluded by communities, or having key supplies disrupted. The TGLF quickly realised it had a role to play in ensuring that routine immunization would carry on in the Global South during the pandemic and then to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

    Peer learning vs hierarchical, transmissive learning models

    Since 2016, TGLF had been slowly gaining traction in the world of immunization learning, with its digital peer learning programmes for immunization staff. These programmes reached around 15,000 people in their first four years, before the pandemic, about 70% of whom were from West and Central Africa, and about 50% of whom work at the lowest levels of health systems: health facilities and districts.

    The TGLF peer learning programmes were developed as an alternative to hierarchical, transmissive learning models, in which knowledge is developed centrally, translated into guidance by global experts, which is then disseminated through cascade training.

    In the hierarchical model, health workers are merely consumers at the periphery of the process. COVID-19 brought the inadequacies of this approach into sharper focus, as health workers dealt with challenges that had not been foreseen or processed through existing guidance.

    No technical guidance could address every scenario health workers faced, such as reaching the most marginalised communities or engaging terrified parents at a time when science had few reassuring answers. They needed to be creative and empowered to find their own solutions. Health professionals learned to rely on each other as peers, learning from each other how to negotiate many unknowns, without waiting for the answers provided by formal science.

    The TGLF approach quickly demonstrated its usefulness in connecting peers during the pandemic. In 2020, the number of platform users doubled to 30,000 in just six months (compared to four years to gain the first 15,000 users) and has now trebled to 45,000.

    Adoption doubled from 15,000 pre-pandemic users to 30,000 users in the first six months of the pandemic. It now stands at 45,000 in 2022. 

    Addressing Covid-19 impacts through challenge-based learning

    The foundation of the TGLF approach was the COVID-19 Peer Hub, an 8-month project based on challenge-based learning, which challenged individuals to give and receive feedback as they collaborated to:

    • Identify a real challenge that they were expected to address in their everyday work
    • Carry out situation analysis, and
    • Develop action plans that are peer-reviewed and improved.

    The Peer Hub was inspired by the works of several of academics who helped create the Foundation: Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, and their technological implementation of “New Learning;” George Siemens’ learning theory of connectivism; and Karen E. Watkins and Victoria Marsick’s insights into the significance of incidental and informal learning.

    The Peer Hub demonstrated the creation of a “human knowledge and action network” formed through both formal and informal peer learning combined with ongoing informal social learning between participants. The network was built on the principle that participants were themselves experts in their own contexts, and creators, rather than consumers, of knowledge. Front-line health workers suddenly had the legitimacy and ability to share experiences with their peers and experts from around the globe.

    Screenshot showing ten user-generated posts displayed as two rows of colourful tiles

    In the first ten days, COVID-19 Peer Hub participants shared 1224 ideas and practices through the Ideas Engine, an online innovation management tool.

    Results of peer-led, challenge-based learning interventions

    More than 6,000 health workers joined the TGLF COVID-19 Peer Hub, where they:

    Assessing the value of peer-led learning in a global vaccine education programme

    The next challenge for TGLF was how to document and capture the value of this? Most of what was shared between peers was not new or innovative at a global level – but this did not make it less useful to the individual practitioner who had not encountered it before. How to account for the sense of identity, community and solidarity arising from peer learning that gives health workers the confidence and motivation to try new things? How to make a link between investment in peer learning, and children immunized?

    “Participation in the Peer Hub has motivated me to organize my district to implement actions developed. It has also encouraged me to invite many Immunization Officers to learn the experiences from other countries to improve country immunization sessions” 

    Peer Hub participant

    Global map with lines connecting countries where participants interacted

    Tracking movement of practices and ideas shared through the Ideas Engine between countries

    Because while health workers responded positively to opportunities to connect, learn and lead with one another, TGLF is very much a new entrant in a well-established institutional learning environment for global health. Here are some questions we’ve developed as TGLF challenges established norms and ways of working:

    • How would you feel as a global expert if you were asked to give up your role as ‘sage on the stage’ to be a ‘guide on the side’ to thousands of health workers?
    • Can self-reported data from thousands of health workers evaluated by peers be trusted more or less than a peer-reviewed study?
    • What does ubiquitous digital access mean for training programmes that have previously incentivised learner participation in face-to-face events through payment?

    “I can actually broaden my vision and be more imaginative, creative towards new ideas that have come up to improve overall immunization coverage.” – Peer Hub participant

    Working with DEFI and other similar institutions, TGLF looks forward to:

    ­We look forward to fruitful dialogues!

    Ian Steed, Associate, Hughes Hall
    Ian works as a consultant in the international humanitarian and development sector, focusing on the policy and practice of ‘localising’ international aid. In addition to his work with TGLF, Ian is involved with financial sustainability in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and is founder and board member of the Cambridge Humanitarian Centre (now the Centre for Global Equality). He studied German and Dutch at Jesus College, Cambridge, and has lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland.

  • Defunking Grunter

    Defunking Grunter

    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. It was etched with constellations, celestial bodies, and navigational lines of ancient wormholes–an atlas of the universe under their feet.

    The youngest among them, Saci, was a fledgling star, her eyes twinkling with raw curiosity and a deep yearning for acceptance. A cloud of unresolved excitement perpetually surrounded her, compelling yet subtle, a characteristic trait of many passionate seekers before her.

    One day, during a session of interstellar navigation training, her enthusiasm came to the fore. Saci hurriedly approached the Grand Orrery, a celestial model showcasing real-time cosmic patterns and wormhole trajectories.

    “Look, Sumé,” she called, her finger tracing the holographic routes swirling around the Orrery. “The quantum oscillations of the Thule wormhole – they’re anomalous, aren’t they? Do you think they might cause instability?”

    Sumé, a gentle smile on his face, looked at the eager apprentice. “Saci,” he said, his voice as calm as a placid cosmic sea, “those oscillations are part of the natural rhythm of this Nebula. What makes you interpret them as signs of instability?”

    She looked back at him, her eyes sparkling with conviction. “Because, aren’t these patterns identical to the Arcturian Singularity that collapsed last millennium? I’ve read about it in the chronicles.”

    Sumé chuckled softly, “Your diligence is commendable, Saci. But remember, not every rhythm plays the same tune. Sometimes, young star, the cosmos dances just for the sake of it.”

    As Sumé’s words trailed off, the other Astral Scholars watched from the corners, a twinkle of amusement and anticipation in their eyes. This was just the beginning of a long and winding journey.

    Little did they know, it would prove transformative for them all.

    Part 2: Cosmic symphony

    In the grand theater of the cosmos, the Obsidian Forum remained a tranquil sanctuary nestled in the heart of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. The Astral Scholars, guardians of cosmic wisdom, convened here, each bringing their unique light to the stellar discourse. Amidst them, Saci, a fledgling star, was on a path of self-transformation.

    It was Sumé, Saci’s mentor, who first perceived the subtle shift in the cosmic tide. Sumé, the guiding luminary appreciated for his wisdom and empathy, felt the ripples between Saci and the Astral Scholars. Sensing the need for a gentle intervention, he decided to foster a bridge of understanding between them.

    Beneath the timeless gaze of the cosmos, Sumé approached Saci, his voice as soothing as a cosmic lullaby. “Saci,” he began, his words imbued with an age-old wisdom, “A journey towards knowledge often walks hand in hand with humility. It’s about engaging in a dance of giving and receiving, a cycle as old as the cosmos itself.”

    Saci listened, her fiery spirit quieted by the softness of Sumé’s words. Part of her perceived his counsel as a reflection on her demeanor. The protective shell of her self-awareness hardened, a comet fortifying itself against the cosmic wind.

    “I appreciate your guidance, Sumé,” Saci responded, her voice vibrating with a controlled energy. “But do I really need to dismiss my very own thoughts? After all, isn’t the cosmos itself a cacophony of countless stars, each shining in its unique way?”

    The celestial silence that followed was palpable, a quiet pause before the eruption of a supernova. Sumé regarded Saci, her resolute spirit flickering like the pulsating rhythm of a quasar.

    “Indeed, Saci,” Sumé replied gently, his gaze unblinking. “The cosmos is a symphony, each star adding its own note. But remember, the harmony is born from listening as much as from contributing. Only then does the cosmic dance truly take shape.”

    His words echoed in the Obsidian Forum, a quiet place that embodied understanding and unity. Yet, Saci remained cocooned in her protective shell, her fledgling light dancing between self-doubt and self-affirmation. This spirited exchange between Sumé and Saci marked a key turning point, revealing a complex tapestry of cosmic interplay. It was an age-old dance of wisdom and perception, a dance that had only just begun.

    Part 3: The Dance of Realization

    In the expansive theater of the cosmos, the Obsidian Forum was alight with anticipation. The Astral Scholars convened once more, their collective wisdom creating a celestial symphony. At the heart of this cosmic orchestra, Saci stood, her spirit dancing on the precipice of understanding.

    A cosmic day dawned when Saci once again took the floor. Her voice, now more tempered but still vibrant, filled the forum, “I’ve been thinking, revisiting my understanding of TGLF and Movement. Perhaps I’ve been viewing them through a narrow cosmic lens, my own.”

    Sumé observed her, a quiet sense of anticipation glinting in his eyes. “That’s a brave admission, Saci,” he commented, his voice as serene as the cosmic sea, “It’s only through recognizing our constraints that we learn to perceive the boundless.”

    This time, Saci didn’t bristle at the mentor’s words. Instead, she took a moment, absorbing his wisdom. There was no sharp retort, no defiant glare. Just a simple nod, signifying her acceptance and understanding.

    The days passed like comets streaking across the cosmic sky, each bringing with it a new opportunity for Saci to learn and grow. She began to approach the Astral Scholars, engaging them in thoughtful conversations, exchanging ideas and exploring possibilities. The once ruffled cosmic energy was now smoothing into a harmonious flow.

    “I’ve come to understand that the cosmic dance isn’t merely about contributing one’s rhythm but adapting to the music already playing,” Saci said one day, her voice echoing the newfound realization.

    Sumé smiled, his eyes reflecting the pulsating lights of the Nebula. “And that, Saci, is the beauty of our cosmic symphony. It’s about playing our notes while also tuning in to the melody of the universe.”

    Saci’s journey was far from complete, but she was learning. She was learning to question her understanding, to seek wisdom, and to adapt. Her fiery spirit had not dimmed; instead, it was glowing with a newfound brilliance, illuminating her path towards becoming a true Astral Scholar.

    As the cosmic twilight descended, Sumé watched Saci. Her transformation was reminiscent of a celestial event, where a collapsing star forms a beautiful Nebula. It was a challenging process, as boundless as the galaxies themselves, but the outcome was worth the struggle.

    Sumé knew that Saci’s journey was just beginning. There were galaxies of knowledge to explore, infinite cosmic mysteries to unravel. But for now, he was content. For now, Saci was dancing with the cosmos, and the cosmos was dancing back.

    With her enthusiasm mildly tempered but not extinguished, Saci ventured further into the Astral Scholar’s realm of knowledge. She found herself engrossed in the study of the Trans-Galactic Light Flux (TGLF), a phenomenon as mesmerizing as it was complex. Her observations led her to draw parallels between it and Movement, an elevated state of consciousness understood and practiced by the Astral Scholars.

    One evening, as the cosmic choir of distant stars filled the Obsidian Forum, she approached Sumé. “I believe I’ve found something significant, Sumé,” she said, a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

    Sumé turned to her, his face illuminated by the myriad colors of the Cat’s Eye Nebula. “Go on, Saci. What discovery awaits us tonight?”

    “I’ve been studying TGLF,” she started, her hands involuntarily weaving through the air as if molding her thoughts into tangible forms. “And I think… I think it’s a form of energy transport, you know? And there’s a parallel with Movement, an exchange of energy at a higher level of consciousness. They’re intertwined.”

    There was a pregnant pause as Sumé absorbed her words. Then he replied, “An interesting perspective, Saci. Your innovative thinking keeps us on our toes. But remember, TGLF and Movement, though they might seem related, function on different planes. One is the heartbeat of the cosmos, while the other is the song of our souls.”

    Later, Saci presented her ideas to the conclave. Her voice was firm, her gaze unwavering. She spoke with conviction, her words leaving ripples in the energy matrix of the Forum. Some Astral Scholars responded with applause, others with probing questions, and a few with skeptical silence.

    As Saci navigated the nuances of cosmic academia, she began feeling the weight of differences in her viewpoints. She noticed her perspectives sometimes overlooked the tradition of ‘stellar contribution’, a fundamental part of the Astral Scholar’s social contract. It was like missing a star from a constellation, leading to incomplete celestial narratives.

    “Saci,” Sumé began in a gentle tone, after one heated debate had dissolved into cosmic silence, “Your theories are like comets, bright and fascinating. But remember, each celestial body, each star and planet, contributes to the cosmic dance. This, too, is a part of our learning, our growth.”

    Listening to Sumé’s words, Saci felt a twinge of isolation but also a spark of curiosity. The day’s lesson had been a tumultuous ride through cosmic wisdom, but she realized that her journey was only just beginning. The Astral Scholars watched her retreating figure, their eyes gleaming with unspoken thoughts. The journey was far from over, and there was still much to learn for everyone.

    Throughout the cosmic days and celestial nights, Saci dove deeper into the intricacies of the cosmos. She brought forth radical theories and challenged age-old interpretations, her voice echoing throughout the Obsidian Forum. Her bright mind shone like a supernova, illuminating previously uncharted corners of cosmic understanding.

    Yet, it was not without consequence. Her relentless drive to validate her theories sometimes made her miss out on the gentle wisdom carried by the cosmic winds. Her interactions started drifting towards a series of inquiries and statements that leaned more towards validation rather than mutual understanding.

    One such day, during a meeting under the veil of a cosmic aurora, Saci brought forth a new framework about the behavior of Quantum Strings. “Isn’t it plausible,” she argued passionately, “that the Quantum Strings in the Sumé Belt oscillate at a higher frequency due to the influence of TGLF?”

    The Forum fell silent, each Scholar processing her theory. After a moment, Cygnus, the oldest among them, replied, “Saci, your enthusiasm is a beacon of hope for all of us. Your thirst for knowledge, undeniable. But have you considered the universal harmony in your hypothesis, the subtle rhythm of the cosmos? And the ‘stellar contribution’ that each celestial body brings to this cosmic ballet?”

    Saci met his gaze, her heart pounding with the intensity of a pulsar. “I… I have,” she said, “but the strings’ behavior is so compelling, it’s hard to ignore.”

    Cygnus responded with a soft smile, “Indeed, it is. Yet, the cosmos is a grand orchestra, my dear. Not a single note out of place, not a single beat without purpose.”

    That night, as the cosmic choir hushed and the Obsidian Forum basked under the soft glow of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, Saci found herself wrestling with a whirlwind of thoughts. Her conviction wavered, her theories began to seem flawed. Yet, she was adamant about standing her ground. The Astral Scholars watched her from the corner of their eyes, seeing a reflection of their own past in her passionate defiance. They realized that their newest member was beginning a transformative journey that was as much hers as it was theirs. It was only the beginning.

    Beneath the brilliant display of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, Saci’s fervor continued to permeate the Obsidian Forum. She was a force, a cosmic storm that stirred the otherwise tranquil conclave. She was bold and innovative, pushing boundaries and invoking intense debates. Yet, underneath her confident exterior, the Astral Scholars observed subtle signs of a silent battle.

    One cosmic twilight, Sumé found Saci gazing at the holographic star maps, her face bathed in a soft celestial glow. “Saci, your presence reminds me of a fledgling supernova, ready to explode and scatter your elements across the cosmos,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

    Saci turned towards Sumé, her mentor and her guiding star. “And what if the cosmos rejects my elements, Sumé?” she asked, her voice shaking, revealing a side she had often masked with her indomitable spirit.

    Sumé took a moment to answer, his gaze soft. “The cosmos doesn’t reject, Saci. It transforms. Your elements, your ideas, they add to the cosmic soup. They cause reactions, start a chain of events that lead to new creations. This is the essence of ‘stellar contribution.’ Embrace the differences, the debates, and the questions.”

    As Saci absorbed Sumé’s words, a realization dawned upon her. Her perception of acceptance had been rooted in agreement, while the cosmos and the Astral Scholars thrived on divergence, debates, and transformation.

    While her confidence seemed unscathed, the Astral Scholars couldn’t miss the shadow of self-doubt that had subtly started to creep in. Sumé, the gentle mentor, understood this was a crucial turning point in Saci’s journey. He knew she was ready to embark on an introspective journey to revisit her beliefs, question her understanding, and transform her approach. As Sumé and the Astral Scholars looked on, Saci stood at the precipice of a great learning curve. This was her initiation into a deeper understanding of cosmic knowledge, a step towards becoming a true Astral Scholar.

    And so, under the incandescent gaze of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, the first chapter of Saci’s journey among the Astral Scholars came to a close. It was a chapter of discovery, of challenging conventions, and of understanding the intricate dance of cosmic forces. But, most importantly, it was about the recognition of her own growth areas and the willingness to address them.

    As the cosmic twilight gave way to the shimmering space-time fabric, the Obsidian Forum began to shimmer with the echoes of Saci’s thoughts. Her realization about her journey sparked a metamorphosis in her approach, a change as significant as the birth of a star.

    Sumé and the Astral Scholars watched Saci’s retreating figure against the cosmic backdrop. They saw the uncertainty in her eyes, the self-doubt that threatened to overshadow her bright spirit. But they also saw a glimmer of hope, the promise of a new dawn, the beginning of a deeper understanding.

    Yes, Saci had made mistakes. Yes, her ideas had stirred the cosmic pot. And yes, she had a long path ahead of her, a path fraught with learning and challenges. But she was just at the beginning of this path, and every path has its own wisdom to offer.

    And so, as the Nebula watched silently, Saci left the Obsidian Forum, her mind full of thoughts, her heart filled with resolve. The first chapter of her journey had come to a close, but the story was far from over. In the grand cosmic dance, Saci was still finding her steps, still learning the rhythm, and the Astral Scholars were right beside her, guiding, watching, and learning alongside.