Creating a ‘choose your topic’ massive open online course: an innovative and flexible approach to delivering injury prevention education

ABSTRACT

Background

A pediatric injury prevention course has not been available as a massive open online course (MOOC). Creating a comprehensive topic course is particularly challenging because the traditional, week-by-week linear curriculum design is often a barrier to learners interested in only specific topics. We created a novel, flexible course as both a ‘choose your topic’ MOOC for the public learner and a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) for medical students.

Methods

We describe creating ‘Injury Prevention for Children and Teens’, a course of 59 video learning segments within eight modules taught by a multidisciplinary panel of 25 nationally-recognized experts. Completion tracking and course evaluations were collected.

Results

In 2.5 years, 4,822 learners from 148 countries have enrolled. Two-thirds of learners were female. Median age of learners was 31 years. For engagement, 19.3% (n = 932) of learners attempted quizzes, and 5.2% (n = 252) participated in online forum discussions. Medical professionals (n = 162) claimed an average of 13 credit hours per learner. Over 200 senior medical students have taken the SPOC.

Conclusion

‘Injury Prevention for Children and Teens’ is a novel approach to injury prevention education that is broad, science-based, accessible, and not cost-prohibitive for a diverse group of global learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Pediatric injury prevention
• medical education
• anticipatory guidance
• Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
• Small Private Online Course (SPOC)

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the outstanding contributions of the course instructors: Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD; Erin Bonar, PhD; Steven Broglio, PhD, ATC; Chad Brummett, MD; Lisa Buckley, PhD; Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, PhD; Cheryl King, PhD; Karla Klas, BSN, RN, CCRP; Yasamin Kusunoki, PhD; Shawna Lee, PhD, MS, MSW; Michelle Macy, MD, MS; Jenifer Martin, JD; Elizabeth Mott, BSN, CPSTI; Richard Neitzel, PhD, MS; Quyen Ngo, PhD, LP; Anuj Pradhan, PhD, MS; Matthew P. Reed, PhD; Jean T. Shope, BSN, MSPH, PhD; Vijay Singh, MD, MPH, MS; Marie Snodgrass, CPSTI; Maureen Walton, MPH, PhD; Stewart C. Wang, MD, PhD; and Marc Zimmerman, PhD.

Disclaimer

The authors’ views expressed in the submitted article are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.

Disclosure statement

Authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported herein was supported by two grants to the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Award Number [R49-CE-002099 and R49-CE-003085]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. [R49-CE-002099,R49-CE-003085].