Free online courses and open learning
Free online learning can help medical writers refresh existing knowledge, fill gaps and explore unfamiliar subjects. A useful course matches the writer’s learning goal and the time they can commit, whether they want to listen to lectures or complete assessed work.
Course formats and participation
A massive open online course (MOOC) is an internet-based class, usually at university or advanced-degree level, open to anyone who wishes to enrol. Courses can combine video lectures, readings, exercises, quizzes and discussion forums. Synchronous courses have set start and end dates, with participants moving through the material at a similar pace; asynchronous courses allow flexible starts but generally provide less personalised teaching. Assessment can include online multiple-choice tests and peer-assessed assignments.
Writers should decide early whether to listen for a refresher or introduction, or commit to assessed work, forums and live sessions. Both approaches can be valuable, but active participation and completion require planning and commitment.
Learning goals and workload
An experienced writer can use a course to consolidate knowledge, fill gaps and understand newer developments rather than start a subject from scratch. Another writer used drug-development courses after starting a new job to learn its terminology and concepts quickly.
In 2013, a freelance with more than twenty years in drug development took the University of California, San Diego’s Drug Discovery, Development, and Commercialization course through Coursera. More than 14,000 people registered, and the course provided two hours of recorded lectures a week for ten weeks, downloadable lectures and slides, a discussion forum and live instructor contact. Different presenters covered each topic with high-quality but slightly overlapping material. Even finding two hours a week was initially difficult, although the writer caught up and enjoyed the break from work once the time became part of her schedule.
The assessment comprised quizzes after each lecture and a final project, completed individually or in a small group and graded by peers. The writer intended to do the project alone to fit her schedule but abandoned it because it required more time than she could reasonably give; she therefore received no completion document.
Judging a course’s level and teaching
Course quality and relevance to medical writing can vary. In a 2015 course experience, Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials through Coursera ran for six weeks at two to three hours a week, with two to four lectures weekly and selected readings in weeks four and six. Its six-week syllabus covered the following topics.
- Trial terminology and designs: parallel, cross-over, factorial, equivalence, non-inferiority, group-allocation and adaptive designs, their advantages and disadvantages, and their implications for sample size.
- Randomisation, selection bias, randomisation schemes, blocking, stratification and blinding or masking.
- Outcomes, objective and subjective measures, selection of a primary outcome, analysis and interpretation, subgroup analysis and intention-to-treat.
- Ethical considerations in experiments involving people and why they matter.
- Reporting clinical trials and the CONSORT guidelines.
- Appraising evidence from different study types, including whether randomised trials are the gold standard and examples of disagreement between trials and observational studies.
The reviewer found the instructors clear and informative, but judged the ethics section’s reliance on readings and quizzes less successful than the lecture-based sections. Weekly multiple-choice quizzes, with up to ten questions, allowed three attempts and explained the correct answers after final submission, which helped check understanding. The discussion forum was less useful to this experienced participant because most contributors lacked clinical-research experience and the questions remained basic. Although she learned nothing new, the course was an enjoyable refresher and she recommended its content for writers new to clinical trials or protocol design.
Short lessons and lectures
Khan Academy’s short lessons with visual explanations can introduce basic scientific concepts and vocabulary. Views of TED’s science coverage differ: one critic described it as superficial or sometimes misleading, while one medical writer found useful research, trends and ideas in the talks. The writer recommends using them to prompt further investigation rather than treating them as comprehensive teaching.