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Harvey L.A.1, Glinsky J.V.1
1University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School, Sydney, Australia
Background: A well-educated physiotherapy workforce is essential to improve rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injuries (SCI). In 2012 the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) Education Committee developed a package to train healthcare professionals about SCI, particularly in places with little SCI expertise. www.elearnSCI.org is an online educational resource designed to deliver effective and inexpensive training on SCI management. However, some individuals benefit from participating in more supported and structured learning environments that encourage participation. Therefore, we embedded the physiotherapy section of www.elearnSCI.org into a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
Purpose: The course aimed to equip physiotherapy students and inexperienced physiotherapists with sufficient knowledge to manage a person with SCI. It included modules on assessing impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions, setting appropriate goals for treatment, formulating an evidence-based treatment plan, implementing treatment and evaluating its success.
Methods: A free 5-week MOOC about the physiotherapy management of SCI was run in May 2016. The MOOC was based on the physiotherapy-specific module of www.elearnSCI.org. A website was constructed to house the MOOC (www.SCIMOOC.org). Participants were provided with a structured plan, directed to additional reading and participated in Facebook discussions. Participant knowledge and satisfaction with the course was quantified through a pre- and post-MOOC knowledge assessment, online course evaluation, internet usage statistics and Facebook activity.
Results: Over 10,000 participants from 150 countries participated in the MOOC. Pre- and post-assessments were completed by 3,251 participants with a median improvement of 15% (IQR 0-25%) over the 5-weeks. The main challenges were ensuring adequate IT support to cope with the number of participants and managing the Facebook discussions. Participants provided mostly positive comments on the course, in particular that it was free, could be undertaken in their own time and provided an opportunity to liaise with international physiotherapists. The time commitment required and the number of the Facebook posts were the most common negative comments.
Conclusion(s): The MOOC increased knowledge about physiotherapy management of SCI. Participants enjoyed meeting colleagues from around the world through the Facebook discussions.
Implications: MOOCs provide a way of exposing large numbers of healthcare professionals to www.elearnSCI.org and to training they may not otherwise receive. This concept could be adopted for other professions.
Funding acknowledgements: The University of Sydney, Australia and the International Spinal Cord Society.
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: .Ethical approval was not required for this study
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
