Remote Interviewer Training for COVID-19 Data Collection: Challenges and Lessons Learned From 3 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

Allows some interviewer training safely during a global pandemic

Builds confidence, skills, and familiarity with remote training, to leverage future remote learning if necessary

Enables cross-country and cross-language knowledge sharing to create standardized materials

Enables participants to watch prerecorded content multiple times and on their own schedule

Requires preparing multiple back up options in anticipation of Internet connectivity or technology issues

Necessitates additional training in remote facilitation for training facilitators

Limits opportunities for organic learning from discussion or practical application

Demands significant human resources to design, develop, and deploy the training systemRequires group tolerance for the risks and potential delays

Access to at least an intermittent Internet connection

Ability to distribute select materials to interviewers, such as a training manual and smartphone, to engage in remote learning

An established and cohesive field team, enabling an environment conducive to attempting new ways of learning

Experienced interviewers, with sufficient background knowledge on protocols and survey content to minimize training time

Simple survey content that builds on interviewers' previous experiences

Familiarity across the study team with at least a few common applications that could be used for remote learning

Internet connection is unavailable or unreliable for large portions of training time

Printed materials and common familiar applications cannot be ensured

Field team is new, or trust and familiarity are still being developed across a team

Training content is lengthy or significantly complex

In-person practical application is essential to learning