Cochrane Crowd and Classmate: new ways of working and learning together to produce health evidence

Article type
Authors
Noel-Storr A1, Dooley G2
1Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group
2Metaxis
Abstract
Background: Cochrane Crowd (crowd.cochrane.org) is an online platform that hosts tasks that help identify and describe health research. Anyone can join this collective effort. Since launch, over 12,500 people from 180 countries have joined. People take part for a range of reasons, with learning as one of the main reasons given. In 2017 we launched Classmate, a tool that enables people to create learning activities using the available Cochrane Crowd tasks. To date, over 100 Classmate ‘challenges’ have been set up in over 30 countries.

Objectives: in this workshop participants will be:
- introduced to the range of tasks available on Cochrane Crowd
- get the chance to explore Cochrane Crowd’s Learning Zone, an area made up of seven micro-training modules, each one based around a single concept critical to understanding health evidence. They will leave the session with the first module complete
- Set up and take part in a live Classmate 'challenge' to identify as many randomized controlled trials as possible (there will be prizes!)

Description: the workshop will begin with a series of short presentations introducing both Cochrane Crowd and Classmate. Specifically, these presentations will cover what each platform does, the range of possible tasks available from study design identification tasks to PICO (population, intervention, comparison, outcome) extraction tasks, and describe our evaluations of both platforms to date.

We will then take a closer look at Cochrane Crowd's Learning Zone. Participants, working either individually or in small groups, will get the chance to earn their first 'micro-training' digital badge for completion of the first module: 'Treatments can harm'.

For the remaining time, the workshop will be highly interactive. In teams, participants will join a live screening challenge, which we will set up together in the workshop using Classmate (crowd.cochrane.org/classmate). The challenge mission will be to identify as many reports of randomised trials as possible. The progress of each team can be seen as the challenge progresses, making it exciting for all involved.

The workshop is open to all but likely to be especially appealing to consumers, trainers, teachers and students.