JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Developments in internet and digital technologies are driving changes in the role of healthcare professionals and biomedical scientists and vastly increasing the healthcare information available to both patients and professionals. MOOCs may have a role in upskilling healthcare practitioners in digital literacies and in improving patients’ digital literacy skills.

Objective:

This study evaluates the impact of a series of interventions aimed at improving the digital literacy skills of learners enrolled on a cancer genomics MOOC.

Methods:

In early runs of this MOOC we observed relatively high levels of plagiarism and incorrect source attribution in the written assessments. Both assessment analytics, and qualitative analysis of learner comments and written tasks, were used to examine and improve the learning design of the MOOC. These findings were used to iteratively improve the guidance and preparatory steps for a written assignment over multiple runs of the MOOC.

Results:

Comparison of the analyses from all runs of the MOOC suggests that pre-assessment tasks and guidance on digital literacy skills were more effective in combatting plagiarism and a lack of referencing in MOOC written assignments, than providing links to good citation practice and plagiarism guidance alone. In later runs, enhanced digital literacy guidance correlated with improved referencing in written assessments. Qualitative analysis of learner comments indicated that by completing the MOOC, learners gained a better awareness of how to evaluate the reliability of online resources related to biomedical science and healthcare.

Conclusions:

This longitudinal study illustrates that by tailoring digital literacy guidance to be of relevance to all learner stakeholders on the MOOC (including patients, caregivers, the public, and students at different stages of their education), learners demonstrated improved digital literacy skills in their written assignments. A key implication of this research is that healthcare and biomedical MOOCs that include digital literacy training such pre-assessment tasks and improved guidance, can equip learners with the skills to more effectively evaluate healthcare information found online.