Massive open online courses: a resource for health education in developing countries

Abstract

Developing countries are suffering from increasing burdens presented by both non-communicable and emerging infectious diseases. Health education is an important step to fight against these mostly preventable diseases. E-learning has been shown to be one of the tools that address some of the training challenges experienced in developing countries by supporting efficient content delivery, decreasing costs and increasing access. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a recent innovative presentation of online learning that have attracted millions of learners from all over the world. In this commentary, we propose MOOCs as a potential tool to offer a tremendous opportunity to fulfil the unmet training needs of the health sector in developing countries in two complementary ways: as a resource for training healthcare professionals; and as a resource for the general public. Potential barriers to accessing MOOCs and possible solutions are also discussed.

Development of a Hybrid Course on Wheelchair Service Provision for clinicians in international contexts

“…Blended learning, or hybrid learning, is a mix of different learning environments and approaches that include online and in-person methods [ 15 ]. This type of learning is a cost-effective [ 16 ] and student-accepted [ 17 – 19 ] method of knowledge dissemination and could feasible for global health education [ 20 – 22 ]. Literature has demonstrated that blended learning is as effective as in-person learning in medical and non-medical education [ 15 , 17 , 23 – 25 ] and can be a feasible solution to overcome knowledge dissemination barriers in less-resourced areas [ 20 ].…”

Health promotion education in changing and challenging times: Reflections from England

“…However, the development of massive open-access online courses (MOOCs) has opened up access to health promotion education for many. This is a positive tool in addressing some of the training difficulties experienced particularly within economically poorer areas of the world, enabling access for both health professionals as well as the wider public (Liyanagunawardena and Aboshady 2017).…”

“…Critical analysis of the discipline has paid attention to the crisis in health promotion and its location within a political climate mismatched to its principles and ideological basis, leading to calls for action to reinvigorate the discipline (Wills et al 2008). More positive analyses suggest that health promotion education and practice offer opportunities to manage complex global health threats (Liyanagunawardena and Aboshady 2017), such as climate change and other 'wicked' health issues, and to serve as forces for social change (White and Wills 2011). There have also been many disciplinary developments that are beneficial for health promotion education.…”

Oral health education for the masses

“…It appears that there is demand for health education throughout the world, in particular, oral health, as evidenced by the number and geographic distribution of individuals engaged in these courses. As oral health care professionals, we have an opportunity to improve oral and systemic health, which can have significant global impact . Our current technology allows us to live in an age where dissemination of knowledge is not limited by the walls of our clinical practices or our academic institutions.…”