University of Tasmania’s dementia course in most popular 50 online courses
University of Tasmania’s dementia course listed in most popular 50 online courses internationally
The university’s free online course Understanding Dementia has been ranked as one of the top 50 online courses of all time.
It was also listed highest in the health and medical category in the rankings put together by open online course (MOOC) aggregator Class Central.
The nine-week course has drawn over 70,000 people from 170 countries since it began in 2013 and was developed by the University’s Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre.
Co-director James Vickers said the course had a completion rate of 38 per cent, which is very high for a free online course.
He credited its popularity to its role in offering a forum for people to talk about issues relating to dementia with others involved in either treating the disease or facing it in their own families.
Currently there are over 350,000 people with dementia in Australia, and this number is expected to reach almost a million by 2050.
It has also now surpassed strokes to become our second-leading cause of death after heart disease.
The course content covers three main areas: ‘The Brain’, ‘The Diseases’ and ‘The Person’ with the coursework taking about three hours per week.
Participants also received a free certificate of participation, as well as a record of the notes that they have taken throughout the course.
The Centre has now introduced a second online course called Preventing Dementia, which attracted 11,000 participants to its first intake and will be running again in 2017.
This course will be looking at the latest research into potential risk factors for dementia and whether these can be reduced to lessen the number of dementia cases into the future.
For more information, visit the course website here.
