Welcome to ASMCUE in Seattle, Washington! Registered attendees are able to download the mobile app onto their phone, create a log-in, and make a personalized schedule and chat with attendees. Questions? Email [email protected]
Log in to add sessions to your schedule and sync them to your phone or calendar.
Public health education has increasingly emphasized the importance of engaging students in the active exploration of complex epidemiological concepts ranging from data analytics to transmission dynamics (Wykoff et al., 2013). Previously, a simulated outbreak of the fictitious pathogen, Watermelon Meow Meow (WMM), was studied in the context of an upper-division infectious diseases course (McAndrew et al., 2024). We sought to expand upon this study by involving 52 students of diverse academic majors in monitoring transmission of WMM and in designing and implementing interventions to curtail the spread of disease, mirroring realistic outbreak response processes. Teams of 5-7 students each were assigned to a particular response role (e.g., coordination, communication, intervention) at the start of the term. For the subsequent 12 weeks, teams collaboratively responded to the outbreak while the disease spread person-to-person, with six interventions being concurrently deployed. Our research aim was to (1) examine how student-student interaction and team dynamics influenced the response process and the perceived success of that process and (2) identify what students found most valuable about the learning experience. A post-simulation survey containing closed- and open-ended items was administered, with items subjected to social network analysis (SNA) and inductive coding, respectively. SNA findings indicated that, while students regularly engaged with the coordination and communication teams, there was minimal interaction between intervention groups. Students overwhelmingly (>85% of the time) ranked interactions with other teams and their own teammates as helpful, although qualitative analyses suggested “earlier and more frequent communication” and “establishing clearer expectations for working together” were desired. Open-response data further demonstrated that students found value in creatively “unpacking” what would occur in a real outbreak situation and broadened their views on the importance of working across roles to manage outbreaks, highlighting the strength of this activity in preparing future public health practitioners and engineers.
