F1000Research
F1000Research
5 years ago

Massive open online courses in health sciences from Latin American institutions: A need for improvement? [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Ricardo Correa, L. Max Labán-Seminario, Carlos Culquichicón, Luis M. Helguero-Santin, Jaime A. Cardona-Ospina, Omar A. Aboshady
Background: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have undergone exponential growth over the past few years, offering free and worldwide access to high-quality education. We identified the characteristics of MOOCs in the health sciences offered by Latin American institutions (LAIs). Methods: We screened the eight leading MOOCs platforms to gather their list of offerings. The MOOCs were classified by region and subject. Then, we obtained the following information: Scopus H-index for each institution and course instructor, QS World University Ranking® 2015/16 of LAI, and official language of the course. Results: Our search identified 4170 MOOCs worldwide. From them, 205 MOOCs were offered by LAIs, and six MOOCs were health sciences related. Most of these courses (n = 115) were offered through Coursera. One health science MOOC was taught by three instructors, of which only one was registered in Scopus (H-index = 0). The remaining five health science MOOCs had solely one instructor (H-index = 4 [0–17]). The Latin American country with the highest participation was Brazil (n = 11). Conclusion: The contribution of LAI to MOOCs in the health sciences is low.

Publisher URL: https://f1000research.com/articles/6-940/v1

DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.11626.1

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