Whyville and the 2009- 2010 Whyflu: Evolving a Virtual World Activity to Meet Changing “Real World” Communication Needs

Background:  To determine the feasibility of implementing an influenza education campaign in a virtual world for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with the creators of Whyville (Numedeon, Inc.) to develop an engaging activity to foster learning about seasonal flu prevention. Whyville is an online community and virtual world created for “tweens” (children between the ages of eight and 12).  Founded in 1999, Whyville was designed to engage children in educational activities and promote pro-social behavior, and is thus an environment conducive to hosting a flu-related health communication and marketing activity. 

Program background:  Whyflu, a virtual infectious disease activity created for Whyville, launched in November 2006 and was repeated in a similar form for the 2007-2008 flu season.  The activity was again hosted in 2008-2009 (November 2008 to February 2009), and included one strain of flu (WhyFlu), a vaccination station, grandparent invitations to the “Vaccination Celebration,” and a live session with a CDC flu expert.  The 2008-2009 activity also added new elements, including virtual hand washing to reduce the spread of infection and self-reporting of “real life” vaccinations. With the introduction of 2009 H1N1 flu in early 2009, CDC worked with the creators of Whyville to once again refresh the activity and add elements that would reinforce “real life” messages about flu.  The 2009-2010 activity (November 2009 to February 2010) included the release of two flu strains, a vaccination station with two different vaccines, modeling of two key hygienic behaviors (hand washing and elbow covering of sneezes and coughs), a “Flu Report” section on the Whyville Welcome Page, a Vaccination Celebration with live session with a CDC flu expert, and the WhyFlu Video Contest.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Participation metrics from the activity were collected by Whyville staff and provided to the project team for analysis.  In the 2008-2009 campaign, there were 8,965 virtual vaccines given, 77,363 virtual flu Infections, and Whyville participants issued the handwashing command 385,070 times. In 2009-2010, there were 14, 749 virtual WhyFlu and 12,369 WhyMeFlu vaccines administered.  There were 25,408 cases of WhyFlu and 27,858 of WhyMeFlu.  Whyvillians issued the hand washing command 214,772 times and the "cover" command (to use elbows to cover coughs and sneezes) 184,716 times.

Conclusions:  The Whyflu activity in Whyville successfully demonstrates the feasibility of implementing an influenza education campaign in a virtual world. Virtual vaccination rates and participation in desired behaviors suggest that participants were engaged, and make it likely that active learning occurred.  Part of the continued success may be attributable to the yearly renewal of the project through the addition of new elements.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Because of the success of this activity in engaging virtual world participants in a health activity, others may want to explore this approach for other virtual health promotion campaigns. Engaging children and teens through virtual worlds is particularly effective for this audience because it attracts and keeps attention, allows for behavior modeling, and provides enhanced motivation for behavior change.  Additionally, this project illustrates the value in refreshing a recurring activity for a child audience to encourage continued interest.