OpenSesame is proud to partner with LINGOs (Learning in Non Governmental Organizations), a fabulous nonprofit working to create, gather and connect learning resources for humanitarian organizations. Each year, LINGOs partners with The eLearning Guild and OpenSesame to organize the eLearning Global Giveback Competition. The Global Giveback competition connects LINGOs members to volunteer elearning developers who create custom courses on a volunteer basis.
As a LINGOs partner, I was honored to represent OpenSesame as a judge in this year’s Global Giveback competition. This year’s nominees did not disappoint, with fabulous courses on wide variety of topics, from using mapping and data to drive social interventions to internal training materials for humanitarian workers.
Last evening I was thrilled to join LINGOs and the Elearning Guild to announce the winners at the Learning Solutions Conference in Orlando. This year’s winner, Amanda Warner, developed an incredible course entitled “Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in People Living with HIV” for FHI 360, a global development organization based in Durham, NC.
It’s not just the title – this topic is incredibly complex. IPT therapy is a powerful tool for minimizing the risk of tuberculosis in HIV-positive people – but it must only be used in specific circumstances. Warner did an amazing job creating a scenario based learning course that challenges participants to make diagnoses and then (and this is the really good part) to follow the consequences of their decision down the line for that patient. Make a bad treatment decision? You’ll see the consequences of that action, understanding more deeply why IPT was appropriate or inappropriate in that context. This is meaningful, contextual learning – and it’s memorable. I took the course months ago and I still know IPT is safe for use in children.
Warner’s thoughtful, in-depth rendering of a complex topic will not only enable FHI 360 employees to use therapeutic treatments more effectively – it will save lives all over the world. To see Warner’s winning course and all the other finalists, please visit the LINGOS Global Giveback showcase.
LINGOs Director of Members Services, Marian Abernathy, explained what Global Giveback means for the international community: “Global Giveback is a showcase of innovative ways of scaling up professional development networks in a distributed, international context.” It’s not just about creating resources for one specific office or need – it’s about creating scalable resources that solve problems affordably and effectively.
It’s particularly appropriate to celebrate this winning course and all the others on the eve of World TB Day. OpenSesame is proud to join LINGOs and The Elearning Guild in supporting the organizations and volunteers using elearning resources to solve big problems. We encourage the OpenSesame community to join LINGOs as a volunteer in next year’s Global Giveback, which will focus on bringing learning resources to any willing and able individual worldwide.