Authors: Gerard Thomas Flaherty, Lydia Sze Teng Lee, Aida Lina Alias, Hasnain Zafar Baloch, Bryan Chang Wei Lim, Kok Leong Tan, Victor Lim, Lokman Hakim Sulaiman.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are designed to accommodate large numbers of geographically dispersed learners. Few healthcare students receive exposure in travel medicine. We aimed as partner medical universities to develop a novel introductory MOOC in travel medicine suitable for undergraduate healthcare students, and to evaluate it among a cohort of learners.
Methods: A course development team, comprising a senior travel medicine academic from National University of Ireland Galway, local International Medical University faculty and instructional/graphic designers, was convened in November 2017. The MOOC proposal was subsequently refined. Course construction commenced in December 2017 and involved communication between team members based in Malaysia and Ireland. Lectures were recorded in January-July 2018. Development of learning and assessment material and the pilot phase were completed in December 2019. Course evaluation was based on the results of a questionnaire and qualitative free text comments from users.
Results: The MOOC is being delivered to a multinational cohort on a rolling basis. It is organised into five four-themed units: travel health risk assessment; pre-travel health advice; tropical infectious diseases;
specialised travellers; and illness in returned travellers. Pedagogical methods include short video lectures, journal articles, a discussion forum, and self-assessment quizzes. Learners have the option of completing an online test to receive a certificate of achievement. Participant evaluation from the first run of the MOOC has revealed very high levels of satisfaction with content and mode of delivery.
Conclusions: This is the first MOOC in travel medicine and it may provide a model for development of other collaborative international e-learning courses. It will address a significant deficit in undergraduate health professional education.
Keywords: Travel medicine, global health, MOOC, medical education, e-learning.
Citation: IeJSME 2020 14 (2): 5-25
