Value Creation framework to assess MOOC based learning

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have the potential to scale up and democratise participation in professional education. Medical advances and growing demand for health providers require adoption of new flexible, team-based and lifelong learning approaches beyond the current “silo” medical training model focused specific professional roles. MOOCs provide opportunities to address pressing global health training challenges through collaborative development and globally networked learning environments. This project considered the extent to which individuals could gain and apply their learning from a global health MOOC within their local contexts. // In 1996 the World Health Organization launched the international initiative ‘GET 2020’ to eliminate trachoma, an avoidable blinding eye disease, across 44 endemic countries. In 2016, 16 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)staff and 37 collaborators from 12 countries developed the first MOOC in “Eliminating Trachoma’ aimed at improving access to training, equipping and mobilising health workers, to achieve ‘GET 2020’. Over 5000 people have participated in the MOOC from a diverse range of professional cadres and disciplines, including clinicians providing surgical services, programme managers, field workers administrating antibiotics, and teams implementing water and sanitation improvements.// We adapted a ‘value -creation framework’ to evaluate the impact of MOOC-based learning on trachoma elimination practices at the local level. Online surveys were designed to capture personal experiences of ‘cycles’ of value creation during participation in the MOOC and after the course. The results provide unique and emergent insights into the ongoing value of the MOOC experience for respondents, their teams and the communities affected by trachoma with whom they are engaging towards the goal of elimination.