On 1 November 2021 the University of Bath's Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement (CHI²), along with the West of England Academic Health Science Network, launched a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on innovation in healthcare.

This free course, titled An Introduction to Innovation in Healthcare, is hosted on online platform FutureLearn. It takes four weeks to complete, and each session involves around three hours of study. The sessions are facilitated if completed during November.

CHI² researchers developed this MOOC in response to the challenges facing healthcare systems across the world, and the need to find new and creative solutions to meet the future needs of organisations like the NHS.

This is the second run of this online course, as the 'soft launch' took place over the summer. While the August run was for five weeks only, the MOOC is now online permanently.

What will you learn?

Participants will learn key innovation theories, as well as practical tools and skills to help them drive change initiatives in their organisations. By the end of course they will be equipped to spot opportunities for innovation, generate new ideas and understand the steps involved in improving products, processes and services in their own workplaces.

Who is this MOOC for?

The course is open to anyone wanting to understand the processes and challenges of innovation in healthcare. It would be especially useful for health practitioners, clinicians, health and social managers, as well as commissioners from the commercial sector.

What are MOOCs?

Massive Open Online Courses provide people from all around the world with the opportunity to expand their education and learning for free. These online university short courses are usually completed over a set number of weeks using video lectures and relevant reading materials. Discussion forums encourage interaction between learners and with the educators.

Over the past decade, MOOCs have grown in popularity, and there have been many developed on a number of healthcare topics. While MOOCs don’t necessarily lead to formal qualifications, they enable people to gain new knowledge and professional skills on a range of topics. They are also a relatively inexpensive and flexible way to offer online training to people who don’t necessarily have the time to physically attend workshops or lectures.

An Introduction to Innovation in Healthcare follows CHI²'s first MOOC on Quality Improvement in Healthcare. This course focuses on improving patient safety and experience of care. Between its launch in 2019 and its final run in 2019 it had over 20,000 registrants