The Use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Education of Pre-Vocational Doctors

Plastic surgery is rarely included as part of the undergraduate medical curriculum, and time-poor junior doctors can struggle to access teaching programs for plastic surgery. Systematic reviews and a randomised-controlled trial aimed to establish whether learning using a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was at least equivalent to reading text for increasing and retaining knowledge in plastic surgery in medical students and junior doctors. The secondary aim was to assess learner experience in MOOCs compared to text-based learning. Learning via a MOOC was shown to be as effective as text-based learning, but users had better knowledge retention and favoured the MOOC learning style.