Pedagogical Approaches and Learning Activities, Content, and Resources Used in the Design of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Health Sciences: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Developing online, widely accessible educational courses, such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), offer novel opportunities to advancing academic research and the educational system in resource-constrained countries. Despite much literature on the use of design-related features and principles of different pedagogical approaches when developing MOOCs, there are reports of inconsistency between the pedagogical approach and the learning activities, content, or resources in MOOCs. Objective: We present a protocol for a scoping review aiming to systematically identify and synthesize literature on the pedagogical approaches used, and the learning activities, content, and resources used to facilitate social interaction and collaboration among postgraduate learners in MOOCs across the health sciences. Methods: We will follow a 6-step procedure for scoping reviews to conduct a search of published and gray literature in the following databases: Medline via Ovid, ERIC, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and PsychINFO. Two reviewers will screen titles, abstracts, and relevant full texts independently to determine eligibility for inclusion. The team will extract data using a predefined charting form and synthesize results in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews checklist. Results: The scoping review is currently ongoing. As of March 2022, we have performed initial data searches and screened titles and abstracts of the studies we found but revised the search string owing to inaccurate results. We aim to start analyzing the data in June 2022 and expect to complete the scoping review by February 2023. Conclusions: With the results of this review, we hope to report on the use of pedagogical approaches and what learning activities, content, and resources foster social and collaborative learning processes, and to further elucidate how practitioners and academics can harvest our findings to bridge the gap between pedagogics and learning activities in the instructional design of MOOCs for postgraduate students in the health sciences.