N. Beamish1,2, T. Lowe2, R. Lowe2
1Queen's University, School of Rehabilitation, Kingston, Canada, 2Physiopedia, London, United Kingdom
Background: On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic with over 123 countries around the world affected by the disease. Recognizing the vital role all healthcare workers have in managing the impact of the disease Physiopedia responded to the global need for information by creating a massive open online course (MOOC) relevant to all rehabilitation professionals. The Coronavirus disease programme consists of four modules: 1) understanding COVID-19, 2) infection prevention and control, 3) role of physiotherapy in COVID-19 and 4) respiratory management of people with COVID-19. The programme aimed to assist in the understanding, identification, containment, mitigation and treatment of COVID-19 through 10 hours of self-directed learning involving videos, reading, forum discussions and quizzes.
Purpose: To describe the global reach, engagement and overall satisfaction with a MOOC delivered during the pandemic.
Methods: A quantitative and qualitative descriptive approach was used to evaluate the success of the course. Google Analytics website tracking software was used to report the number of page views and geographic location of participants that accessed the programme. Anonymised data from Physioplus activity logs were used to report the number of learners who began and completed each course as well as each modules’ learner retention rate. Participant overall satisfaction was collected using a voluntary, anonymous survey at the end of each course.
Results: Between March 16th and July 8th, 2020, the programme received 116,485 pageviews from learners located in 201 countries. 11,653 learners completed the first module; 7199 completed the second module, 7803 completed the 3rd module and 5422 completed the final module. Module retention rate (completions compared to starters) ranged from 65.3-71.0%. Over 217,000 learning activities were logged over sixteen weeks. The programme had positive feedback (n=8934) with 85.5-90.5% of learners rating the modules as either “excellent” or “great”. Qualitative analysis of comments on the post-course surveys identified that learners enjoyed the combination of text and video learning activities as well as the quizzes to consolidate the information presented. Learners suggested that the course could be improved by providing subtitles in different languages and by incorporating more clinical examples.
Conclusion(s): A MOOC has the potential to rapidly reach a larger number of learners from around the globe to respond to an international crisis such as that posed by a pandemic.
Implications: During the COVID-19 pandemic, free access to accurate and up-to-date information is imperative. A MOOC targeted at rehabilitation professionals can be an effective strategy to prepare personnel for emergency situations.
Funding, acknowledgements: No funding was awarded for this project.
Keywords: education, virtual platform, rehabilitation
Topic: COVID-19
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: Ethics approval was not required as this study addresses developments in education.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
