One Class, Four Institutions: Shared Lecture Streams and Local Teamwork

11 August 2026

When IS4NCDs set out to pilot its Core Modules, it faced a practical constraint common to multi-country training programmes: how to deliver the same rigorous, faculty-led training across four institutions without either repeating the same module four times or asking faculty to travel constantly between sites.

The answer is a hybrid delivery model built specifically for this challenge.

A Shared Lecture Stream, Delivered Locally

Beginning the first week of October 2026, the three Core Modules

• Fundamentals of Implementation Science
• NCD Epidemiology, Determinants of Health & Implementation
• Designing, Monitoring & Evaluating Implementation Programs

will be piloted simultaneously at Copperbelt University, The University of Zambia, Stellenbosch University, and the University of the Witwatersrand.

One set of live lectures streams into all four classrooms at once. From there, participants at each site work through practical, challenge-based learning activities in person, facilitated locally by faculty at each institution. The result is a single, consistent curriculum delivered at scale, without sacrificing the in-person, team-based work on which implementation science training depends.

Why This Model, and Why Now

The approach reflects a requirement built into the project from the outset: each Core Module needs to be piloted at all four partner institutions, not just one. Streaming shared content once, rather than repeating it site by site, was the model that met that requirement most efficiently, whilst preserving space for locally facilitated, hands-on practice at every location.

What’s Ready Behind the Scenes, and What Comes Next

Accreditation and Continuing Professional Development approval processes are progressing at each partner institution, with several already at an advanced stage ahead of October. Ethics approval for the project’s evaluation protocol has already been secured through the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, giving partner institutions a shared foundation as they complete their own local reviews. A working group with representation from all seven consortium partners is also shaping the project’s regional learning eHub.

IS4NCDs will begin accepting Expressions of Interest soon. The Core Modules, scheduled for piloting in early October and valued at approximately ZAR 6,000 per module, are fully funded — there is no cost to participants during the pilot phase.