Judith Salinas’s research while affiliated with University of Chile and other places

Background: A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. Aim: To assess the MOOC experience for teaching nutrition, healthy food consumption, physical activity and health promotion to prevent obesity. Material and Methods: Two MOOC courses, (one with two versions), are described with the registration and evaluation instruments such as surveys carried out at the beginning and at the end of the courses. Effective participants in the three versions were 17.456, 11.121 in MOOC1, 2.351 in MOOC1 second version and 3.984 in MOOC2. Their median age was 31 years, 82% were women, 60% were professionals and 12% were foreigners. Results: In the final evaluation of the three courses, 85% to 99% qualified as “very good” or “good” all the surveyed topics. Thirty five percent of participants reported having lack of time, 11% reported problems with internet connectivity and 3.9%, personal or work problems. Conclusions: This is the first experience with MOOC in health and nutrition to prevent obesity in Chile. Considering the good results and positive evaluation of these courses, we estimate that they are an important tool to prevent obesity and chronic diseases in Chile, Latin America and other regions of the world.

Through focus groups, we explored 22 third- to fifth-grade teachers' perceptions about their eating habits, including barriers and facilitators to healthy eating. It also explored teachers' thoughts about how to teach students healthy eating habits. The information was transcribed and treated using the content analysis technique. Results were evaluated using the concept of majority and minority group and presented in a sequential way: teachers' perceptions about eating habits, barriers to healthy eating, teacher's culinary habits, abilities to teach students healthy eating habits through Information and Communication Technologies, and cooking activities. Teachers' eating habits were poor, with lack of time, money, and will to improve. They had culinary habits skills and the desire to instruct and guide their students in eating healthier food. They need a program with Information and Communication Technologies and cooking workshops to apply in the classroom.