Massive open online courses in health sciences from Latin American institutions: A need for improvement? [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

F1000Research

Omar A. Aboshady¹  Carlos Culquichicón²  L. Max Labán-Seminario³  Luis M. Helguero-Santin³  Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina⁴  Ricardo Correa⁵ 

[1] Clinical Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, 32721, Egypt;Emerge, Emerging Diseases and Climate Change Research Unit, School of Public Health and Administration, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, 15102, Peru;Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Nacional de Piura, Piura, 20001, Peru;Infection and Immunity Research Group, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, 660003, Colombia;Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02914, USA;

关键词: Science & Medical Education;    Web and Social Media;   

DOI  :  10.12688/f1000research.11626.1

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have undergone exponential growth over the past few years, offering free and worldwide access to high-quality education. We identified the characteristics of MOOCs in the health sciences offered by Latin American institutions (LAIs). Methods: We screened the eight leading MOOCs platforms to gather their list of offerings. The MOOCs were classified by region and subject. Then, we obtained the following information: Scopus H-index for each institution and course instructor, QS World University Ranking® 2015/16 of LAI, and official language of the course. Results: Our search identified 4170 MOOCs worldwide. From them, 205 MOOCs were offered by LAIs, and six MOOCs were health sciences related. Most of these courses (n = 115) were offered through Coursera. One health science MOOC was taught by three instructors, of which only one was registered in Scopus (H-index = 0). The remaining five health science MOOCs had solely one instructor (H-index = 4 [0–17]). The Latin American country with the highest participation was Brazil (n = 11). Conclusion: The contribution of LAI to MOOCs in the health sciences is low.

【 授权许可】

Unknown