scholarly journals Utility of massive open online courses (MOOCs) concerning outbreaks of emerging and reemerging diseases

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Bendezu-Quispe ◽  
Junior Smith Torres-Roman ◽  
Brenda Salinas-Ochoa ◽  
Akram Hernández-Vásquez

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases such as Ebola, chikungunya, and Zika increase the necessity of knowledgeable and skilled health professionals. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) arise as opportunities that allow people around the world to participate in higher education courses. A search was conducted on specialized MOOC platforms to find courses related to outbreaks, using terms included in the list of the WHO disease outbreaks from January 1st to December 31st, 2016. We found seven courses about Ebola, two about Zika, three about the dynamics of epidemics and pandemics, and only one course about dengue, chikungunya, and malaria. Most of the courses were conducted in English. The courses on Ebola, Zika and chikungunya were released after their last outbreak. MOOCs could be used to learn about health issues of global relevance, and with the necessity of fast divulgation of knowledge and skills. Translating the courses into more languages could give these courses more traction, and allow participation of professionals in regions affected by these outbreaks.

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Bendezu-Quispe ◽  
Junior Smith Torres-Roman ◽  
Brenda Salinas-Ochoa ◽  
Akram Hernández-Vásquez

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases such as Ebola, chikungunya, and Zika increase the necessity of knowledgeable and skilled health professionals. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) arise as opportunities that allow people around the world to participate in higher education courses. A search was conducted on specialized MOOC platforms to find courses related to outbreaks, using terms included in the list of the WHO disease outbreaks from January 1st to December 31st, 2016. We found seven courses about Ebola, two about Zika, three about the dynamics of epidemics and pandemics, and only one course about dengue, chikungunya, and malaria. Most of the courses were conducted in English. The courses on Ebola, Zika and chikungunya were released after their last outbreak. MOOCs could be used to learn about health issues of global relevance, and with the necessity of fast divulgation of knowledge and skills. Translating the courses into more languages could give these courses more traction, and allow participation of professionals in regions affected by these outbreaks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raniah Samir Adham ◽  
Karsten Oster Lundqvist

Abstract Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Arab World are still in their infancy. Many Arab countries are now starting to launch their MOOC platforms; however, there are only a few who have actually implemented such systems. This paper will explore online learning, in particular the rise of MOOCs around the world and their impact on the Arab World. The purpose of this paper is to give a true picture of the development of the first MOOC platforms in the Arab World. It will analyse in detail the concept, definitions, background, and types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs), as well as the main MOOCs platform in the Western and Arab worlds, and a timeline of the development of MOOCs. It will then observe the status of MOOCs in the developed world, opportunities in the Middle East, and the influence of Western MOOCs on the Arab world, from many perspectives, e.g. educational, religious, cultural and social.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Kumar ◽  
Shweta Nishad Brahmbhatt

This chapter aims to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the current state of application called MOOCs, which are one of the subset of e-Learning. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) provide a new way of learning, which is open, participatory, distributed and lifelong. Various premier universities of the world are now offering courses in the form of MOOCs. The MHRD, Government of India has also started a MOOCs platform called SWAYAM. This chapter covers the definition of MOOCs, its features and different MOOC platforms being used for e-learning i.e. edX, Coursera, SWAYAM, Udacity.


Author(s):  
Clare Lade ◽  
Paul Strickland ◽  
Elspeth Frew ◽  
Paul Willard ◽  
Sandra Cherro Osorio ◽  
...  

This chapter examines the ways in which teaching and training in tourism, hospitality and events have evolved and adapted to the contemporary demands of academia and industry. It explores the development of education in tourism, hospitality and events, the contemporary factors which influence teaching and learning, and discusses the rise of Massive Open Online Courses with a particular focus on their potential application within tourism, hospitality and events curriculum. The chapter concludes by providing an overview of Open Badges and their importance in education. At the time of writing, the world has been confronted by the Covid-19 global pandemic which has caused great disruption at all levels. The impact of Covid-19 is briefly addressed in this chapter as the enforcement of social distancing measures has led to a significant increase globally in online education.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Zou ◽  
Haoran Xie ◽  
Yanghui Rao ◽  
Tak-Lam Wong ◽  
Fu Lee Wang ◽  
...  

The world has encountered and witnessed the great popularity of various emerging e-learning resources such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), textbooks and videos with the development of the big data era. It is critical to understand the characteristics of users to assist them to find desired and relevant learning resources in such a large volume of resources. For example, understanding the pre-knowledge on vocabulary of learners is very prominent and useful for language learning systems. The language learning effectiveness can be significantly improved if the pre-knowledge levels of learners on vocabulary can be accurately predicted. In this research, the authors model the vocabulary of learners by extracting their history of learning documents and identify the suitable vocabulary knowledge scales (VKS) for pre-knowledge prediction. The experimental results on real participants verify that the optimal VKS and the proposed predicting model are powerful and effective.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
QIU-HU DENG

Since the birth of massive open online courses (MOOC) in 2011, MOOC has developed rapidly all over the world. MOOC platform has developed from providing courses to providing social recognized degree certificates for learners. There are many MOOC platforms at home and abroad. Many scholars believe that MOOC is a destructive innovation form of education. Many famous schools have launched MOOC projects. After years of development, the platforms launch course combinations to meet the needs of learners and provide certification according to the market demand. MOOC is conducive to promoting teaching innovation, promoting the sharing of high-quality resources, improving the quality of teaching, expanding education services, and building a lifelong learning society. Learners should start from their own interests, choose suitable learning projects, actively, consciously and diligently complete online learning, so that MOOC learning can be effective and applied.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-144
Author(s):  
Camille Berry ◽  
Avalloy McCarthy-Curvin ◽  
Sharon Bramwell-Lalor ◽  
Schontal Moore ◽  
Mairette Newman ◽  
...  

The ever-changing needs of society justify the necessity for teachers to engage in continuous learning. Teachers are encouraged to participate in professional development activities that will help them develop the knowledge and skills that are required to meet the needs of a 21st century society. It is recognised that access to professional development has increased since Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) became an option for in-service teachers who traditionally found it difficult to access certain professional development activities because of distance and lack of convenience.A survey was administered to 72 respondents to capture the experiences of in-service teachers from the Caribbean, who participated in a MOOC offered by the Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN). The survey explored the MOOC participants’ perception of the MOOC as a source of professional development, as well as the extent to which they applied the content learnt in the ITEN MOOC. The findings of this research show that 95% of the participants perceived the ITEN MOOC to be an effective source of professional development and were able to apply the content to their professional context. The findings further suggest that MOOCs across the globe provide an opportunity for in-service teachers to forge partnerships and establish learning communities that will improve their professional knowledge and skills.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey Harris ◽  
William Heikoop ◽  
Allison Van Beek ◽  
James S. Wallace

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow anyone in the public to learn from professors at universities across the world. An internet connection is the only requirement to participate in a MOOC. In engineering, the majority of MOOCs are targeted at self-learners, and consequently most courses are based on introductory undergraduate courses. The University of Toronto offered its first advanced engineering MOOC entitled, “Wind, Waves & Tides” based on a mixed fourth-year undergraduate and graduate level course. A total of 11,723 students registered in the course, and 617 students completed the course in its entirety. The following paper describes the experience of teaching a niche interest MOOC and the lessons learned throughout the endeavour.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoosh Mehrabi ◽  
Ali Reza Safarpour ◽  
Abbas Ali Keshtkar

Abstract BackgroundRecently, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received increasing popularity throughout the world. Regardless of the subject taught and the university providing the course, the dropout rate of MOOCs is one of the most important challenges ahead.Methods This systematic review will search MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Embase (Embase.com), ASSIA, CINAHL, Education Research, BEI, and Eric databases systematically according to predefined criteria without language restrictions to retrieve prospective and retrospective observational studies conducted between the 1st of January 2000 and 30th of March 2020 which evaluated the frequency of leaving MOOCs throughout the world. In the absence of severe methodological heterogeneity, the data will be combined and a meta-analysis will be performed. DiscussionAs dropout rate is one of the most challenges that universities may encounter, this systematic review will help universities extend their view, save their resources or maybe design their MOOCs differently.RegistrationRegistered in Open Science Framework, available at: https://osf.io/jgyqx/


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