COURSE: Understanding Dementia

Understanding Dementia is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), offering university-quality education about the latest in dementia research and care. This free course provides an opportunity to engage with the perspectives of an international community, without requiring exams or assignments.

Understanding Dementia is designed to be accessible and appealing to people from diverse backgrounds, including:

The mooc.utas.edu.au website enables access to the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) developed by the University of Tasmania, including the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre.

Health professionals

Community and residential facility support staff
People in the early stages of the disease, their families and carers
Social scientists
Health policymakers
Individuals with a general interest in dementia

Understanding Dementia addresses the foremost issues surrounding dementia, providing avenues for discussion as well as rich global networking opportunities to engage with this major international health Issue. The course provides knowledge designed to maximise quality of life across the trajectory of dementia for people with the condition, their families and carers.

To obtain the most from this course, participants should expect to spend approximately 3 hours per week engaging with the content and completing related course activities. There are 7 weeks of scheduled content. After completing the final quizzes for all three modules of the course: ‘The Brain’, ‘The Diseases’ and ‘The Person’, participants will be eligible to download a certificate of completion.

Course Outline
A background on basic brain anatomy and function

The Brain
The Brain provides background content on basic nervous system anatomy and function, followed by a discussion of the diseases that cause dementia, current dementia research and future directions.

Nervous system anatomy

Anatomy with Body Central
Pathology of dementia
Future directions of dementia research
Explores the differences between dementia and normal ageing

The Diseases

The Diseases explores differences between normal ageing and dementia, risk factors, issues surrounding diagnosis, as well as medical management.

Difference between normal ageing and dementia

Risk factors for dementia
Domains of dementia
Diagnosis of dementia
Younger onset dementia
Stages of dementia and focusing support
Medical management

The course addresses the difficulties in recognising symptoms, progression and staging of the disease and also what it is like to live with dementia

The Person
The Person addresses difficulties in recognising symptoms, living with dementia, palliation, pain, dementia friendly communities, dementia inclusive design, and non-pharmacological therapies.

Insidious onset of dementia