ABSTRACT
Background Latin America was one of the last regions of the world to become affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a response to the emergency virtual education was implemented in almost every country of the region.
Methods a massive open online course about epilepsy was made using only free software and platforms following the international league against epilepsy competence-based domains for epileptology teaching.
Results 250 healthcare students signed up for the course and only 17.2% of them had previously participated in courses like this one. This course had a completion rate of 37.2% and of the students that completed the course 98.3% would participate in course like this in the future.
Conclusion In conclusion MOOCs can be easily implemented as a powerful pedagogic strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic and can have a positive impact not only in in its proposed learning objectives but it can help closing the gap that prevent Latin American healthcare students to acquire actively knowledge trough them.
Personal, Professional, and Institutional Social Network accounts
Discussion Points
How can a student made MOOC impact Latin American medical students?
Can a student made MOOC encourage medical students to use and discover new educational online offers?
COVID-19 pandemic can be a good time to improve the academy using new technologies and pedagogic strategies.
MOOCs can become a powerful tool for learning and teaching worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MOOCs are an attractive tool for teaching and learning during the social distancing caused by COVID-19.
- COVID-19
- Quarantine
- Epilepsy
- Latin America
- (Source: MeSH-NLM)
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
No external funding was received.
Author Declarations
I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.
Yes
The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:
The universidad pedagogica y tecnologica de Colombia research ethics board approved the protocol and publication of this manuscript. It contains anonymized personal data from the participants of the study.
All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.
Yes
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
Yes
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.
Yes
Footnotes
About the author: David Fabian Ramirez Moreno is a 6th year medical student from Tunja, Colombia. David is part of the research group “Grupo de epidemiología clínica de Colombia” a leading research group from Tunja, Colombia, He also got the 3rd place in the “V Concurso nacional estudiantil de conocimientos en neurociencias” an annual neuroscience knowledge contest in Colombia.
Data Availability
All the data regarding this article is presented in the manuscript itself.