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During the COVID-19 pandemic, many face-to-face training courses are being redesigned to be delivered virtually. In the UK, the Sexually Transmitted Infection Foundation (STIF) Course is traditionally a 2-day training programme split into two modules: STIF Core and STIF Plus. Both days consist of a mixture of facilitator-led sessions and small group workshops, and this is accompanied by 8–10 hours of e-learning that the participants undertake in advance.
Here we report how, in Barnsley and Buckinghamshire, we piloted the delivery of the Online STIF Foundation courses using Microsoft Teams (MS Teams). In both cases, the usual full-day training was replaced by shorter sessions as it was felt that uninterrupted full-day virtual learning was not conducive for learning.
Adapting training to the pandemic
The Buckinghamshire STIF Plus Course was delivered online over 4 weeks in June 2020, in a series of 2-hour lunchtime sessions. All 27 attendees were staff members from the Buckinghamshire Sexual Health service. A STIF ‘Team’ was created on MS Teams, and registered attendees were added in advance, facilitating early logistical planning and correspondence. All PowerPoint slides …
Footnotes
Handling editor Anna Maria Geretti
Twitter @rubinsteinLS
KLA and DF contributed equally.
Contributors KLA and DF have contributed equally to this paper. RM, NT and LR have contributed in the conceptualising and supervision of this paper.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.