Factors affecting the effectiveness of massive open online course in health professional education: an updated rapid review

A rapid review published in 2020 summarised factors and barriers influencing the effectiveness of MOOCs, to inform decisions regarding health professions education in the early days of the pandemic. No subsequent rapid reviews have updated this work to include evidence produced during the pandemic period, nor documented the capacity of MOOCs to reach vulnerable populations or to consider vulnerability as content, given their intent to be accessible and inclusive. The aims were therefore (a) to describe the state of research on MOOCs targeting healthcare professionals by updating the previous rapid review; (b) to update the factors influencing the effectiveness of MOOCs; and (c) to investigate whether MOOCs addressing vulnerable populations, either as the target of the educational intervention or as content, have been documented. This rapid review was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42024560295) and conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Studies concerning health professional education, published between 2020 and 2024, using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, or review designs and providing data on MOOCs in any language were searched for in PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, Scopus, PsycInfo, and MEDLINE. Forty-three studies were included, showing growth in both number and quality compared with those documented in the previous rapid review. MOOCs are increasingly pedagogically robust, multilingual, and adapted to healthcare professionals and students. Overall, a map of facilitating and barrier factors has emerged at (1) the MOOC level, including the quality of MOOC design and delivery, the quality of didactic strategies and tools, the quality of the structure, contextual and strategic alignment, and costs; (2) the platform level; and (3) the participants’ level. Populations with vulnerability as a target remained largely absent. This updated evidence highlights a more nuanced set of factors influencing MOOC effectiveness. The resulting map of factors promoting or hindering effectiveness provides a useful resource for MOOC designers. However, greater attention to vulnerable populations is needed to ensure that MOOCs fully uphold the principles of inclusivity and accessibility.