The Online Learning Model that is Revolutionizing Medical Education

Higher education is in a state of constant evolution due to technological advancements. And while we often think of technology within the context of how it’s being put to use in primary, secondary and tertiary classrooms, it also has tremendous value in another setting: medical education. Here’s a closer look at one technology positioned to shake up the world of medical education: Small Private Online Courses, AKA “SPOCs.”

Image courtesy of Elevate Health

What is a SPOC?

By now most people have heard of MOOCs, AKA Massive Open Online Courses. These free and open classes are simultaneously taught to thousands of students from all over the world.

While SPOCs are also online classes, they differ from MOOCs in several key ways. For starters, they are taught by real instructors (as opposed to merely programmed into a computer), and operate on a much smaller scale with the number of enrollments determined by the resources available. They also support a variety of blended learning approaches, including flipped classrooms. Lastly, SPOCs may offer a higher degree of quality because they can be held to a higher standard of (paid) accountability.

Explains “SPOCs in the Spotlight,” a recent article published in Opleiding & Ontwikkeling, “A SPOC is a short course taught entirely online. SPOCs are conducted for small groups of participants who are in frequent contact with each other online and who receive online guidance from an instructor and a moderator. SPOCs almost always have set start and end dates and often include deadlines for assignments as the course progresses.”

Perhaps The Conversation puts it best in comparing MOOCs and SPOCs, which have been linked with better learning outcomes: “If a MOOC is like an exercise bike, the SPOC adds a personal trainer.”

How SPOCs are Revolutionizing Medical Education

A growing body of evidence speaks to the tremendous potential of SPOCs within the medical education sphere. According to “SPOCs in the Spotlight” authors Renée Filius and Nienke Verdonk, the value of interpersonal exchange in medical education is profound. For starters, there’s the availability of more intensive instructor guidance. Say Filius and Verdonk, “The instructor can monitor the collaboration and interaction between participants more closely and intensively and provide them with customized feedback. Monitoring students online usually is much easier than face to face, because of the online dashboard that the instructor can use which records and tracks all interaction and activities of the participants.”

Image courtesy of Elevate Health

And the benefits of connecting with others aren’t limited to the student-teacher relationship. Newly published research in Medical Science Educator points to the value of student-student interactions found in SPOCs. After observing the extent to which social interactions occurred in the discussion forums of four courses of the UMC Utrecht’s international Master’s Program Epidemiology, researchers determined improvements across interactions, involvement and coherence. Concludes the paper, “SPOCs appear to provide a sustainable answer to the increased demand for online higher education, with an environment suitable for students to learn, in agreement with the need for social interaction in higher education.”

Elevate Health: A Case Study

As head of R&D and instructional designer at Elevate Health, Filius and Verdonk are uniquely suited to address how SPOCs are changing medical education.

Elevate: the story so far... from Elevate Health on Vimeo.

An internationally recognized online learning platform specializing in e-learning within the medical (research) sector, Elevate offers doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical researchers, dieticians, veterinary scientists and other health professionals access to a comprehensive range of online medical classes taught by some of the world’s leading global health experts. Each participant customizes their own medical education based on their unique strengths, needs and interests with 24/7 access to Elevate’s innovative Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). They can also opt to study exclusively online (ideal for students who may not be able to travel) or to participate in blended plans comprising distance learning and face-to-face sessions -- all at their own pace and from wherever they are in the world.

Conclude Filius and Verdonk, “We expect that face to face education will remain important as well, for example with practicals for surgeons-to-be, but the combination of face-to-face and online (as a SPOC) brings together the best of both worlds.”

Image courtesy of Elevate Health

In short, there are a lot of reasons for medical education programs to utilize SPOCs. But if you’re a medical student, you may be wondering how well Elevate SPOCs work as a learning environment? One statistic, in particular, says it all: 98.8 percent of participants finish their coursework on time. This is largely attributable to the unique sense of engagement and connectedness students experience. Says Filius and Verdonk, “The combination of intensive online coaching and the interaction and collaboration within a limited group size are important contributors to the low drop-out rates for SPOCs as compared to MOOCs.”

Prospective SPOC students may also have questions about the reception of their qualifications, with good reason. While SPOCs may offer a dynamic, convenient and modern learning experience, it’s important to choose a SPOC program that comes with the requisite academic clout to recommend its graduates. Upon completion of their Elevate work, meanwhile, students not only have the requisite knowledge and skills, they also have the credentials to back them up in the form of academic certificates and diplomas from Elevate Health's partner Utrecht University or another leading educational institution.

In facilitating discussion and engagement, Elevate Health serves as an interactive portal which enables global health professionals to share knowledge, explore ideas, and analyze new science. In this capacity, SPOCs are more than just a learning approach. They’re also an opportunity to reduce the disparity of health standards between countries toward overall enhanced global health care delivery.