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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1395931
This article is part of the Research Topic Learning Interventions and Training: Providing Support during Health Emergencies View all 11 articles

Evaluation of a massive open online course for just-in-time training of healthcare workers in resource-limited settings

Provisionally accepted
Matthew Strehlow Matthew Strehlow 1*Jamie Johnston Jamie Johnston 2Kelly Z. Aluri Kelly Z. Aluri 3Charles Prober Charles Prober 2Peter C. Acker Peter C. Acker 1Avinash Patil Avinash Patil 1Aditya Mahadevan Aditya Mahadevan 4Swaminatha Mahadevan Swaminatha Mahadevan 1
  • 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States
  • 2 Center for Health Education, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 3 School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 4 School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: COVID-19 created a global need for healthcare worker (HCW) training. Initially, mass trainings focused on public health workers and physicians working in intensive care units. However, in resource-constrained settings, nurses and general practitioners provide most patient care, typically lacking the training and equipment to manage critically ill patients. We developed a massive open online course (MOOC) for HCWs in resource-constrained settings aimed at training bedside providers caring for COVID-19 patients. We describe the development, implementation and analysis of this MOOC.Methods: From May through June 2020, the course was developed by a multi-disciplinary team and launched on two online platforms in July. The 4-hour course comprises 6 video-based modules. Student knowledge was assessed using pre-and post-module quizzes and final exam, while demographics and user experience were evaluated by pre-and postcourse surveys and learning platform data.Results: From July 17th to September 24th, 30,859 students enrolled, 18,818 started, and 7,101 completed the course. Most participants worked in healthcare (78%) and resided in lower middle-(38%) or upper middle-(20%) income countries. Learners from upper middle-income and lower middle-income countries had higher completion rates. Knowledge gains were observed from pre-module to post-module quizzes and to final exam. Afterward, participants reported increased self-efficacy regarding course objectives, a 0.63 mean increase on a 4-point scale (95% CI [0.60,0.66]). Most participants, 93%, would recommend the course to others.This program article demonstrates the potential of MOOCs to rapidly provide access to emerging medical knowledge during a public health crisis, particularly for HCWs in high-and middle-income countries.

    Keywords: pandemic, MOOC, Online Education, LMICs, healthcare worker training

    Received: 04 Mar 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Strehlow, Johnston, Aluri, Prober, Acker, Patil, Mahadevan and Mahadevan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Matthew Strehlow, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, 94304, California, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.