Queen Mary recognised on global stage for online education
The Healthcare Leadership Foundations course, created by Queen Mary University of London’s Institute of Dentistry, in collaboration with the Digital Education Studio from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, was recognised with the GMA Award at the 2025 Global MOOC and Online Education Conference for its innovative use of technology-enhanced learning to equip healthcare professionals with the skills needed in an AI-driven world.
The team received the international GMA Award at this year’s MOOC held in Mexico City, which is awarded for excellence and innovation in technology-enhanced STEM education and recognised 20 courses from around the world across different disciplines. Led by Dr Vanessa Muirhead and co-taught by Dr Cecilia Gonzalez-Marin, the Healthcare Leadership Foundations course at Queen Mary was developed as part of their CARE Agenda, which aims to embed compassion, accountability, research and excellence (CARE) across its educational offer. Among the reasons highlighted for why the team received this award was how the programme successfully translates research-informed leadership concepts into meaningful, applied learning for clinicians and health practitioners.
The course explores power dynamics, authenticity, values-based leadership, network mapping and peer coaching, encouraging healthcare professionals to reflect critically on their own practice and on the structures within which they work. By combining these themes with opportunities for peer learning and reflection, it equips participants with practical tools to navigate complex healthcare environments and change.
Professor Chie Adachi, Dean for Digital Education in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, represented Queen Mary at the awards ceremony and accepted the GMA Award on behalf of the course team. Speaking on their work being recognised on a global scale, she said: “Receiving this award is a powerful recognition of the collective effort behind the Healthcare Leadership Foundations course. My heartfelt thanks to our brilliant clinical educators, Drs Vanessa Muirhead and Cecilia Gonzalez-Marin, and to Jorge Freire, Senior Learning Designer, and the Digital Education Studio team for their exceptional contributions.
“For us, this is not only about innovation in digital and healthcare education—it’s about what can happen when we bring interdisciplinary team together to foster better leadership, healthier workplaces, and ultimately better care for patients in the future workforce.”
During the conference, Professor Adachi also took part in the panel discussion on the “Quality, Equity, and Inclusive Access in the Digital Era” panel, aligned to her wider work on challenging “technosolutionism” and advocating for AI and digital technologies in higher education to be used in ways that support more just and inclusive futures.
Queen Mary’s presence at MOOC 2025 and winning this award builds on the integral role it plays in this field, as does co-hosting the 2024 Global MOOC and Online Education Conference on their Mile End campus last year, in partnership with Tsinghua University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.