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Building a successful massive open online course about multiple sclerosis: a process description

Citation

Claflin, SB and Gates, R and Maher, M and Taylor, BV, Building a successful massive open online course about multiple sclerosis: a process description, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22, (7) Article e16687. ISSN 1439-4456 (2020) [Refereed Article]


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Copyright Statement

Copyright 2020 Suzi B Claflin, Rachael Gates, Maree Maher, Bruce V Taylor. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

DOI: doi:10.2196/16687

Abstract

Background: Over the course of a year, we developed and tested a 6-week massive open online course (MOOC) on multiple sclerosis (MS) in consultation with the MS community. The course targeted the MS community and interested laypeople and was titled Understanding MS. The primary purpose of the course was to improve MS knowledge, health literacy, and resilience among participants. The final version of the MOOC made available for open enrollment was ranked first among all MOOCs released in 2019 (n>2400) based on participant reviews.

Objective: The aim of this study was to present a detailed description and assessment of the development process of the Understanding MS MOOC.

Methods: The development process included a course development focus group; the creation of more than 50 content videos and related text, quizzes, activities, and discussion prompts; the creation of original images and animations; a pilot study; and collaborations with people living with MS, MS nurses, allied health care practitioners, and neurologists and researchers from 4 universities.

Results: Overall, the process was efficient and effective. With a few small changes, we recommend this approach to those seeking to develop a similar course. This process led to the development of a highly reviewed MOOC with excellent user satisfaction.

Conclusions: We identified 5 key lessons from this process: (1) community support is essential, (2) stakeholder involvement improves content quality, (3) plan for research from the beginning, (4) coordination between the academic lead and project manager team ensures a consistent voice, and (5) a network of collaborators is a key resource.

Item Details

Item Type:Refereed Article
Keywords:health education, multiple sclerosis
Research Division:Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:Neurosciences
Research Field:Central nervous system
Objective Division:Health
Objective Group:Clinical health
Objective Field:Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:Claflin, SB (Dr Suzi Claflin)
UTAS Author:Gates, R (Ms Rachael Gates)
UTAS Author:Taylor, BV (Professor Bruce Taylor)
ID Code:140400
Year Published:2020
Web of Science® Times Cited:2
Deposited By:Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Deposited On:2020-08-13
Last Modified:2020-09-03
Downloads:8 View Download Statistics

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