Hearing Loss in Children: Critical Medical Education Delivered as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

Purpose: Although early identification of pediatric hearing loss is crucial, a formal online training course has not been freely accessible to a global audience. In response, we created a novel course for health professionals worldwide. Method: Course development occurred from February 2019 to May 2020. Seventeen multidisciplinary experts provided video lectures and demonstrations, including a tour of ear anatomy, operating footage of cochlear implant insertion, and demonstrations of children undergoing hearing testing. Content also included steps for interpreting audiograms, an overview of early screening programs, interviews with Deaf/Hard of Hearing children, and an introduction to public health/educational infrastructure. The course was hosted on Coursera and launched on May 4, 2020. Results: The course was approved for 11.5 Continuing Medical Education (CME) and American Board of Pediatrics Maintenance of Certification (MOC)-Part 2 credits and spanned five modules comprised of 50 video learning segments: 1) Ear Anatomy, 2) Hearing Loss and Assessments, 3) Hearing Loss Diagnosis and Impact on Speech and Language Development, 4) Interventions for Hearing Loss, 5) Pediatric Vestibular System and Balance. Since its launch, 6,556 learners have enrolled and 1,540 have fully completed the course; Fifty percent were 25-34 years old, 62% were female, and 43% were from Asia. Average rating was 4.9/5 (n=180 reviews). Conclusions: We created a freely accessible course for a global audience that provides a broad overview of pediatric hearing loss. Our multidisciplinary approach addresses an educational gap and can serve as a model for developing other online courses.

Creating a 'choose your topic' massive open online course: an innovative and flexible approach to delivering injury prevention education.

BACKGROUND: A pediatric injury prevention course has not been available as a massive open online course (MOOC). Creating a comprehensive topic course is particularly challenging because the traditional, week-by-week linear curriculum design is often a barrier to learners interested in only specific topics. We created a novel, flexible course as both a 'choose your topic' MOOC for the public learner and a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) for medical students. METHODS: We describe creating 'Injury Prevention for Children and Teens', a course of 59 video learning segments within eight modules taught by a multidisciplinary panel of 25 nationally-recognized experts. Completion tracking and course evaluations were collected. RESULTS: In 2.5 years, 4,822 learners from 148 countries have enrolled. Two-thirds of learners were female. Median age of learners was 31 years. For engagement, 19.3% (n = 932) of learners attempted quizzes, and 5.2% (n = 252) participated in online forum discussions. Medical professionals (n = 162) claimed an average of 13 credit hours per learner. Over 200 senior medical students have taken the SPOC. CONCLUSION: 'Injury Prevention for Children and Teens' is a novel approach to injury prevention education that is broad, science-based, accessible, and not cost-prohibitive for a diverse group of global learners.

The Role of Medical Student Government in Responding to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak has sown clinical and administrative chaos at academic health centers throughout the country. As COVID-19-related burdens on the health care system and medical schools piled up, questions from medical students far outweighed the capacity of medical school administrators to respond in an adequate or timely manner, leaving students feeling confused and without clear guidance. In this article, incoming and outgoing executive leaders of the University of Michigan Medical School Student Council and medical school deans outline the specific ways they were able to bridge the gap between medical students and administrators in a time of crisis. To illustrate the value of student government during uncertain times, the authors identify the most pressing problems faced by students at each phase of the curriculum-preclerkship, clerkship, and postclerkship-and explain how Student Council leadership partnered with administrators to find creative solutions to these problems and provide guidance to learners. They end by reflecting on the role of student government more broadly, identifying 3 guiding principles of student leadership and how these principles enable effective student representation.