Background: Medical knowledge is expanding everyday with increasing complexity of the health-care system. For that, it is important for faculty to have self-motivation for their update and self-development. Self-directed learning in todays scenario is mostly done by online learning or e-learning. Of many tools, massive open online course (MOOC) is a relatively new phenomenon blooming the adult learning. They fill the role of continuous education and professional development.
Objective: To find out the awareness and use of MOOC and educational video series by the medical faculties.
Materials and Methods: It was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. Thus, predesigned and pretested questionnaire forms were distributed to faculty members of a medical school. Questionnaires were about usage of information technologies and Internet tools, various messaging and discussion tools, and use of MOOC and video series by medical faculties. The filled up forms were collected, and statistical analysis was done by using Microsoft Excel.
Result: A total of 108 faculty members participated in the study. More than 64% participants were using Internet more than 5 h per week. Among all participants, 63.89% participants were using online messaging and discussion tools such as email, google and yahoo groups, blogging, forums, and others. Awareness of MOOCs and web portal such as edX, coursera, Udacity, and others was only 18.52% (20) among the faculty members. Of them, 14 reported that they had enrolled in such courses at least once. Of 108 faculties, 25 were aware of availability of educational video series, and 22 reported using video series.
Conclusion: Use of Internet and online discussion tool for educational purpose is very good among the faculty members. But, the study shows that the awareness of online learning tools such as MOOCs and educational video series are very low among faculty members. However, after some awareness program, they will start using these resources for self-directed learning.
Key words: Massive open online courses (MOOCs), educational video series, faculty self-learning
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