After 8 weeks of intense learning experiences and conversations about amputee rehabilitation the Lower Limb Amputee Rehabilitation course has come to an end. Around 4000 people engaged in what turned out to be quite an intense course and the outcomes have once again been staggeringly positive.
The course, which consisted of directed readings, videos, quizzes and case studies, ran for six weeks from 1 June 2015. There were an additional two weeks at the end allowing for people to catch up and complete their final assignment which was a case presentation. Around 1000 completed all the required tasks including the submission of their case presentation to receive an ICRC/Physiopedia completion certificate plus 24 International Physical Therapy Continuing Education Units from the WCPT.
We had the usual complaints about using a private Facebook group as the discussion forum (we have previously addressed this here) but overall the evaluation responses were again overwhelmingly positive. We have seen:
- instances of direct impact on clinical practice, most commonly in the form of service re-evaluation
- people changing the direction of their career or studies as a result of the course
- individuals organising volunteer placements with other people that they met on the course
The participants went through an amazing learning experience, as did we! We have learnt a lot about delivering massive open online courses which Tony and I have recently written about in our respective Voices columns. I write about what we have learned and the positive impact on clinical practice that the course has had, and Tony writes from a more educational perspective on how we will use what we have learned to develop more courses in the future. It’s been a fascinating experience!
We have written up a course report that includes information about participants (country of residence, experience, profession etc) and the course evaluation responses. If you’re interested in MOOCs and/or thinking about running one of your own, it might be an interesting read.