Here, I would like to share my experience taking Introduction to Breast Cancer from the Yale University, School of Medicine, on Coursera.

A Course for Professionals, Patients, and Friends

This is a wonderful and empowering class taught by Dr. Anees Chagpar, professor of surgery at this great school of medicine. This class is truly a deep introduction to Breast Cancer, directed towards a variety of learners — individuals in the healthcare profession, social workers, and students in a variety of professions.

Most importantly, it is for patients including their friends and family who want to increase their awareness about this deadly disease and be part of their loved one’s journey towards breast cancer treatment.

This class helps patients to make informed decisions and choices during their journey of treatment and beyond, and live a happy and healthy life as a survivor.

In this class, you will understand the value of screening for this cancer, how cancer is diagnosed, what different lab reports mean, stages and grades of cancer, and lab tests that help the doctors to decide the individual treatment plan.

You will learn about the variety of doctors who comprise the medical team. Some of those are radiologists, pathologists, genetic counselors, breast surgeons, plastic surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, cardiac oncologists, dieticians, and so on.

The treatment plan is largely based on your cancer type and stage. You can also learn about various clinical trials. All these topics are very empowering.

I highly recommend this class to everyone who is interested in learning about the disease that is the second-highest cause of death in women. In this class, you will learn about various aspects of Breast cancer from screening to detection to diagnosis to treatment to survivorship, and much more.

Many interviews with experts in various fields are covered by the professor. So, we can learn from the experts in the field and feel empowered when we learn about the most current advances in medical science that can save lives.

Assessments

If you are taking this class to earn a certificate (you can see mine above), you will get the opportunity to take a variety of quizzes that test the topics covered each week.

There is a total of six quizzes that relate to individual week’s material. After the final week, there is an interesting peer graded assignment that asks the learner to write about a clinical trial that made the biggest impact in terms of breast cancer management. This assignment inspired me to examine various clinical trials and appreciate the value of the findings for which I was a beneficiary 20 years ago! I also learned from my peer’s responses and realized the great importance of clinical trials in advancement of the treatment through research.

This class was first offered five years ago, and since then several updates and interviews have been added to this class. The professor has also answered discussion board questions in an office hour video. The discussion board is still active and this is one of those classes I will keep visiting again and again to participate in the discussion, ask questions and learn continuously about advances in breast cancer treatment and management.

Give the gift of education to yourself and others. In this class, we learn from the best and empower ourselves through high-quality educational material that is for everyone touched by breast cancer in some way. Check it out for yourself and see if it satisfies your curiosity and much more, that can eventually save lives.

This is one of those very thoughtful, informative, and empowering MOOCs that I have encountered as a lifelong learner. I would like to see millions around the world take this class: there is something for everyone to learn. If you are a lifelong learner like me, this is absolutely a great class for you! Happy learning and spreading love of learning! It can save lives, so, never stop learning.

I would like to dedicate my certificate to this class to all the victims and survivors of breast cancer all around the world.