Using co-creation to develop a cardiology online open course: an effective approach for implementing digital learning.

AIMS: we developed a massive online open course (MOOC) through co-creation between medical students and academic staff on heart semeiotics and evaluated its teaching efficiency and user satisfaction.

METHODS

"The Heart, Its Signs and Symptoms" was a MOOC aimed to teach medical students to collect clinical history and perform physical examination of patients presenting with chest pain, dyspnea, palpitations, or syncope. It consisted of 4 interactive cases with preliminary, interim and final evaluation tests. A group of medical students, with the supervision of a multidisciplinary team of University professors residents, health management and informatics researchers developed the MOOC.

RESULTS

Users (n = 701) registered to the online platform over 1 month. Students from 34 of the 40 Italian medical faculties participated. 96% of those who started the online course completed at least one of the 4 modules. Among users completing both the preliminary test and the final exam (n = 239, 34% of those registered to the online platform), the percentage of subjects passing the evaluation test raised s from 74% to 95% after the course. Younger age, attendance of Universities in Southern Italy, and a lower number of correct answers during the pre-test predicted a greater increase in the number of correct answers; Almost all participants who provided a feedback (n = 238) felt satisfied by the course.

CONCLUSIONS

Partnership of medical students and academic staff was a key asset for the success of the initiative. The high rate of involvement and positive feedback from learners suggest a still unmet need for online learning resources.