Introduction to Medical Software Course at One Year
In October 2021, professor Xenophon Papademetris launched his Introduction to Medical Software course on Coursera. In the year-plus since then, over 5,000 students have enrolled in the course, and many have completed and shared their accomplishments on social media. To commemorate this anniversary, we interviewed Prof. Papademetris about his experience creating the course last year.
Professor Papademetris’ course was both inspired by and has impacted his in person teaching. When distance learning took place starting in 2020, he realized that he had created some valuable lecture content for his Introduction to Medical Device Software course. He decided to explore building upon those early lectures and got in touch with the Digital Education team to put together a formal online, open course.
“There was no master plan, it just happened,” according to Professor Papademetris.
Since the refinement of those lectures and the filming of his online course, he has also shifted his in-person teaching style. He has incorporated pre-recorded lectures with his residential students, as well as using his tablet to teach and incorporating more video resources.
“This was the first time I was lecturing with an iPad, but I had practiced it from home and it felt like the right thing to do.”
He emphasized that his online teaching style wasn’t much different from his in person lectures,.
“Getting lectures to 15 minutes was a little challenging for me, but otherwise I don’t think my teaching style changed that dramatically.”
The biggest difference? With a live audience he tends to make more jokes.
His advice to anyone else considering making an online course – “follow the software development process: design, iterate and review continuously”.
“If you want to do this well, we followed the exact same procedure as designing software in building this class. We had review sessions, the students were really helpful, it was really nice to have the students come in and do the proofreading and corrections. We had a quality system in place. Involve students and practice. Record your videos ahead, don’t wing it.”
This process allowed the course to be filmed efficiently and come together quickly with high quality lecture content.
This level of effort and attention to detail has also, happily, resulted in great feedback from students who have taken the course and posted about it on social media.
“You see the comments on Linkedin, it’s kind of fun, I have to say. You get the comments. It’s great to see what people are saying.”
The course now has thousands of learners, while the in person version of the course can only accommodate a few dozen at a time. This expanded reach and positive feedback is heartening - while Professor Papademetris admits this is a “niche” topic, software development is a growing part of the medical field and this course is sure to impact some prospective engineers.