Building dementia knowledge globally through the Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Abstract

The prevalence of dementia is escalating world-wide and knowledge deficits remain a barrier to community inclusiveness and quality care. The need for quality, comprehensive education has been identified as a key priority for global action plans on dementia. The Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course (UDMOOC) offers the potential to improve dementia knowledge globally. Completion rates for the UDMOOC (2016-2017) were on average 42% of enrolments, and 69% of participants care or have cared for people with dementia. The current study shows baseline dementia knowledge was positively related to previous learning about dementia from various types of exposure to the condition including having family members and/or working with people with the condition, and having undertaken dementia education. However, knowledge of all participant groups showed substantial improvements after completion of the UDMOOC. This was shown regardless of educational background and previous experience of dementia, and group differences after completing the UDMOOC were minimised. The UDMOOC is therefore an effective knowledge translation strategy to improve dementia knowledge for a diverse, international learner group.

Fig. 1

Estimated mean DKAS (Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale) scores and 95% confidence intervals for 4894 UDMOOC participants with all combinations of educational attainment and dementia-related exposure. Dementia-related exposure is defined by having a family member with dementia (family), having completed dementia-specific education (DemEd), or having worked with people with dementia (work)

Fig. 2

Estimated probabilities of achieving a DKAS (Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale) score of 45 out of a possible 50 or greater for each combination of dementia-specific exposure and educational attainment before and after undertaking the UDMOOC. Sample size for each combination is shown (total n = 4894)