Evaluating Course Completion, Appropriateness, and Burden in the Understanding Multiple Sclerosis Massive Open Online Course: Cohort Study
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 10, 2025

Project-Based Learning Guidelines for Health Sciences Students: An Analysis with Data Mining and Qualitative Techniques
Published on: December 9, 2022
Suzi B Claflin1, Julie A Campbell1, Kathleen Doherty2
1Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
Background:
Massive open online course (MOOC) research is an emerging field; to date, most research in this area has focused on participant engagement.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to evaluate both participant engagement and measures of satisfaction, appropriateness, and burden for a MOOC entitled Understanding Multiple Sclerosis (MS) among a cohort of 3518 international course participants.
Methods:
We assessed the association of key outcomes with participant education level, MS status, caregiver status, sex, and age using summary statistics, and 2-tailed t tests, and chi-square tests.
Results:
Of the 3518 study participants, 928 (26.37%) were people living with MS. Among the 2590 participants not living with MS, 862 (33.28%) identified as formal or informal caregivers. Our key findings were as follows: the course completion rate among study participants was 67.17% (2363/3518); the course was well received, with 96.97% (1502/1549) of participants satisfied, with an appropriate pitch and low burden (a mean of 2.2 hours engagement per week); people living with MS were less likely than those not living with MS to complete the course; and people with a recent diagnosis of MS, caregivers, and participants without a university education were more likely to apply the material by course completion.
Conclusions:
The Understanding MS MOOC is fit for purpose; it presents information in a way that is readily understood by course participants and is applicable in their lives.
Related Concept Videos
Bioavailability Study Design: Single Versus Multiple Dose Studies
Bioavailability Study Design: Healthy Subjects Versus Patients
Study Design in Statistics
Does aspirin reduce the risk of heart attacks? Is one brand of fertilizer more effective at growing roses than another? Is fatigue as dangerous to a driver as the influence of alcohol? Questions like these are answered using randomized experiments with proper...
Surveys
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and...
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...

