In 2011, just a year later, Cecilia was invited to become a tutor at the same virtual campus that had changed her life. “I was very nervous. It was a big responsibility and my first experience as an online teacher. But it was great, I loved it! It was serious work, with discussion, debate, and enrichment through shared experiences,” she said.
Gabriel Listovsky, who leads the VCPH, emphasized the approach required for online education in health. “Teaching in virtual environments involves interdisciplinary work between content experts, teachers, tutors, specialists in designing virtual education programs, and specialists in multimedia technology. Cecilia fit this model perfectly,” he said.
For Cecilia, this approach was essential for effective learning and then teaching, since VCPH course participants share very different experiences and backgrounds.
“VCPH students have a lot of experience in health care, which always enriches the discussions. It’s good to be able to access such high-level courses free of charge,” she explained. Created in 2003, VCPH is PAHO’s educational platform. It currently has nearly three and a half million users from more than 225 countries and territories around the world.