The Virtual Campus held a series of training seminars to strengthen the tutoring skills of its teaching teams: the opinion of participants

The Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) held a series of tutor training seminars with the purpose of improving the competencies and technical capacities in virtual tutoring of its teaching teams.

The seminar series was developed through three synchronous sessions and approximately 15 hours of asynchronous activities in the virtual classroom, with 140 participants enrolled. The topics addressed were the educational approach of the Virtual Campus, essential competencies for teaching and assessment of learning.

Gabriel Listovsky, chief of the Virtual Campus Special Program, welcomed the participants and emphasized "the educational approach for the Virtual Campus is aligned with the perspectives of permanent education in health and the international perspective of lifelong learning". In addition, he also highlighted "the importance of the Virtual Campus as PAHO's educational platform to accompany the processes of technical cooperation of the organization, focused on the transformation of health services."

The seminar series was focused mainly on those who have responsibility for course tutoring. PAHO officials from both the regional level and country offices participated, as well as colleagues responsible for designing courses for the VCPH from regional academic institutions and ministries of health. 

Here are some of the comments from those who participated in this training:

"During my participation and preparation in the Tutor Training Seminars at the VCPH, my experience was wonderful. I was very pleased with the journey in each of the topics presented. I managed, among other things, to strengthen my skills in communication and feedback, follow up the progress of participants and evaluation of activities. The guest panelist, through their experience, guided me in key aspects as a tutor and course coordinator. Thank you for this experience!"                                          

Aimar Camero, national consultant for the Virtual Campus for Public Health, Node Venezuela.

"I am grateful for the possibility of participating in the 2024 edition. It has allowed me to improve my technical skills and abilities in the virtual tutoring of VCPH courses. Even though I have more than 6 years as a tutor of virtual courses, it is important to have the opportunity to reflect on the role of the tutor, updating ourselves on the characteristics of teaching in the framework of virtuality, exercise key aspects of effective tutoring and listen to the experiences of teachers and participants. It is certainly an experience that I recommend to both new tutors and experienced tutors."                                                                                    

Maria Teresa Ibarz, international consultant of the Quality and Regulation of Medicines and Health Technologies Unit (QR).