Last question for the course: post here!

[Anne]

How has your understanding of GPP changed since you first enrolled in the course? Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Topic

[Cynthia]

I really learnt a lot from this course. GPP is new to me but now, I know what it entails.

I learnt the success of any trial depends on how each stage of the trial is handled, from the start research until trial Closure and is very important to stakeholders participation in the all process.

[James]

Also I will love to extend this capacity more a year, I want to make it a routine and possibly push an advocacy to include and reflect GPP tenets  in practical terms for all Nigeria in-country research protocol.

[James]

I learnt so much about GPP. At first it was a totally new experience. GPP gave me the opportunity to rech to my target community openly on research literacy. GPP made to know that the essence of stakeholder engagement. I first went through the outline at first. and later I learnt one new of converting what io have learnt into action. That is the high point of new things I have learnt. I will be using the next 12 months to educate my target community on research literacy, GPP and the continuous need for stake holder engagement all a trial life cycle.

[Nancy]

I didn’t know about GPP specifically as laid out by the UNAIDS and AVAC document before enrolling in this course but I was certainly aware about many its components that are generally promoted as part of ethical and good practices when conducting research. Coming from a funder’s perspective, I’ve now thought more about the role we can play in requiring our applicants and grantees to think more about how applying GPP can improve their studies in a more systematized way and how we as a funder can help ensure it actually happens and actively support and participate in the process as well. We don’t typically fund large trials but we do fund pilot interventions and while not all aspects of GPP are clearly applicable, I’m more curious about the community engagement component than I was before and how my organization can become more educated on the role of these stakeholders in the work we fund.

[Kathrine]

As many others have noted — it was extremely useful to have the detailed guidance through the content of the GPP Guidelines, to have interactions with others who are engaged in the same work, and to have the facilitation of skilled moderators.   We can all sit in our offices and read the GPP Guidelines (and I am sure many of us have!) but this course was much more useful than that as it forced us to think through the principles, apply them concretely to our own research programs, and to hear from others about their experiences.  I also hope that this learning community can be extended and that we can continue to draw on each other and the facilitators as we move our work forward.

Thank you very much Anne and Jessica for helping us all build a foundation on which to grow our programs.

 

[Phumeza]

Yes i have learned a lot through this course, i have been talking GPP for as long as i remember but has never engage in to this level. Being thought the importance of community engagement and how every principle is talking to one another has made me value stakeholdres engagement even more, and my passion has been renewed.

I would like to thank you GPP team especially Anne and Jessica for this opportunity and for your patience.

[Fanele]

Yes, I have learned that through GPP one can address non clinical trial community matters and be able to involve service providers to continue providing care to participants post trial. Stakeholder engagement is key and sites can achieve more than conducting research but to enforce that co ownership of research activities in and with communities.

[Nkunda]

Initially I knew that engaging stakeholder was important but I didn’t know to what extent we had to engage with them. I knew the mechanisms but I didnt know why or the benefits engaging stakeholders in a study.

I’m extremely excited by what I’ve learnt in this course. It’s all about the stakeholder! It’s all about the community! The success of any study hinges on the success of the trust relationship built with the stakeholders and communities. If research teams widden their scope to look beyond the facts and figures and actually look to serve the community they are working in, it leaves a lasting impact and causes social change. And finally I’m looking forward to working on the M&E component.

There wasn’t any one thing that surprised me rather than a coming together of different aspects and seing how the whole study process and GPP come together and compliment each other.

Thanks Anne and Jessica for communicating your passion for GPP to me. Thank you also for your patience.

[Haoyu]

I have heard of GPP for awhile. I’ve even attended meetings talking about GPP, and have perused the GPP guideline before. So I had a good general idea of GPP. What I lacked was how to turn GPP principles into actionable items. This is where I thought this course was really great. I thought the 10 modules broken down the contents really well,  stepwise going through how GPP principles can be applied to different stages of a clinical research program. Also the homework assignments and discussion questions are very well thought out in that each one really encourage us to relate what we learned in the modules to our own research context.  So it is exactly what I needed.

[Bamidele]

All the GPP topics covered in this course are my favorites. but to start with I will pick stakeholders’ identification and principles of their engagement for negotiation, consensus and follow-up (because of participant retention, one major issue in my work here).

[Larissa]

We have learned during this course the importance of having stakeholders involved in the trial from the start up to the end. When we started with the clinical trial at our Research Centre, we weren’t aware of the importance of stakeholders during the recruitment stage and only involved community stakeholders later during the trial. In the future we’ll engage with stakeholders from the beginning! Stakeholder engagement is a continuous process and approaches should be applicable for the different groups.

The GPP course was very relevant for us as it showed us that we’re already doing many things, without even being aware of GPP and we’ve extended our knowledge on stakeholder engagement. Most of the modules showed examples of prevention studies, which was very relevant for our research site.

[Bamidele]

I really learnt a lot from this course as if it was specifically designed for me. First, this is the first time of me doing an online course. The word GPP is totally new to me to start with. But now, I know what it entails. It is the process of identifying stakeholders in the formative stage of a clinical trial (not only HIV prevention trial) in order to have community trust and support for the project before planning, during implementation at closure. I learn that using the GPP principles and guidelines is key to achieving agreement between me (i.e research team) and my stakeholders and in addressing barriers to trial participants enrollment, engagement and retention.
I really want to thank all the GPP facilitation team and a job well done in shaping my concept and knowledge on GPP and making it practicable to use in my current field work even while the course was going on. Not to forget my able colleagues in the course for sharing their wealth of experiences. Thank you all.

[Santorra]

Though I’ve always known the importance of practicing GPP, I learned that GPP is more than just obtaining informed consent and filling out a work plan each year. This course has broken down all of the principles utilized to build the GPP program and has allowed me to discover the importance of each one in stakeholder engagement and trial planning. My colleagues taking this course have also provided great insight and some creative ideas in terms of reaching out to potential stakeholders as well as current CAB members. I feel that the information I’ve learned here is truly invaluable and will help boost our site’s stakeholder engagement–it will certainly help in creating a better engagement plan!

[Bernice]

I’ve got a lot of surprises through this GPP Course. I now understand that ‘ research’ is a team work involving different stakeholders whose inputs must be considered.
Also the success of any trial depends on how each stage of the trial is handled, right from formative research to trial Closure. All the stages are very important and should be done properly having GPP Principles in Mind.

[Mark]

My knowledge of GPP was almost non-existent, although I knew that it existed, thoroughly understood the 6 guiding principles, and had quite a bit of real world experience seeing and participating in their implementation. Learning GPP through this course dramatically expanded my understanding of how the principles could be applied in practice. Although I understood the need for and the concept of community engagement that extends beyond traditional CABs or CAGs, I now have a much better and deeper understanding. I feel much more knowledgeable about the different kinds and levels of stakeholders and how that term refers to a group of people that extends way beyond the target population for a study or its participants. I also have a new appreciation for how an inclusive, multi-disciplinary team of dedicated and knowledgable people can come to the table and develop this kind of process, learning from past misfortune and going on to get into a very deep level of detail and develop very specific and useful tools. I found this, the history, and the case studies in the course both helpful and inspiring.

[Mahesh Ramrao]

Yes, I learn lots of from GPP course. My starting was from word “stakeholder” and ends at how they are engage by GPP. I learnt How GPP  guidelines are important in protocol designing, informed consent, trial related harms, prevention packages. What is CAB/CAG, everything was new for me including online course. Important thing I learnt that honest, transparent communication from both sides, and input of community stakeholder is more essential for success of research.

[Sherri]

The main thing that I will take from this course is the importance of measuring community engagement beyond recruitment numbers.

 

It also reaffirmed that community engagement is reciprocal (not just 1 way) and reminded me that I need to take some mpre time to get insights from the community and not just educate the community.

 

 

[Alison]

I have learned that GPP is simply a framework for ensuring that stakeholders are effectively and meaningfully involved in the life cycle of a program / grant/ trial. I have learned that it is more complex than I thought and also hard to get buy-in from internal stakeholder – they view it as a one person job! I think the main thing I have learned, is that some meaningful engagement is better than blindly going ahead with no stakeholder engagement so I am encouraged by that.

 

 

[Anthonia]

Yes, I learn a lot. Now I know  that   any community engagement activity must be participatory, prioritizing stakeholders concerns, before I thought the research team can make decisions and impose it on  the stakeholders without asking for their inputs. The surprise I got was the positive and meaningful contributions that some of us would not have thought of we got when we had a brainstorming session on how to recruit for our up coming trial with some stakeholders.

[Author]

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