Oxford Clinical Neuroimaging Course

The Oxford Clinical Neuroimaging Course is a fully online and self-paced course, which is flexible to your schedule. The course content includes, among others:

HOW DO I SIGN-UP?

The course is currently closed for sign-ups, whilst the content is expanded and updated. We will be re-opening the course to sign-ups in Autumn 2023. If you would like to be placed on a waiting list to be notified as soon as it is possible to sign-up, please email us win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.

The course is hosted in “Canvas” the University of Oxford virtual learning platform. Once, the sign-ups reopen, the link to the University of Oxford Store will be available here.

Please note: All accounts are added manually. So, if you sign up over a weekend or holiday, there may be a short delay and your account access may not be granted until the next working day. Thank you for your patience. 

Where did the idea for the course come from?

The course came about as a result of requests from clinical neurosurgery and neuroradiology trainees at our local hospital in Oxford. While there are plenty of neuroimaging courses out there, these tend to be either very broad clinical courses (without the direct applications of advanced techniques like fMRI or DTI in practice) or very in-depth research-oriented courses that focus on the physics or analysis of imaging data. Our trainees desired something in-between that would offer a little bit of technical insight but would focus strongly on how advanced methods are used in clinical practice, and why.

The Oxford Clinical Neuroimaging Course was therefore created by a team of neuroimaging scientists at the FMRIB-WIN and Consultant Clinicians who use advanced neuroimaging technologies in their daily clinical practice. The purpose of the course is to bridge the clinical-research gap, providing a comprehensive overview of neuro MRI in the clinic, whilst also expanding into more specialist topics such as advanced sequences and analysis methods supported with direct illustrations of how MRI and MRI-adjunct technologies are used for clinical intervention.

Who’s the course aimed at?

The course covers practical aspects of MRI with a view toward its use in clinical settings. Consequently, it is aimed mostly at clinical trainees and other health professionals with an interest in MRI (such as MRI radiographers and related Allied Health Professionals). However, the course materials also cover various applications of imaging in clinical research and would therefore equally appeal to neuroscientists who are interested in translational applications of MRI.

Does the course assume any knowledge?

This course assumes only basic clinical or neuroscience familiarity with MRI i.e. familiarity with some overall brain anatomy and disease terminology, as would be encountered naturally in most clinical, healthcare or neuroscience settings. In order to keep the focus very translational, we have not delved deeply into fundamentals of neuroscience and anatomy that you would easily find in textbooks, or dwelled too much on the physics of MRI. Instead, the course aims to have a practical approach to the clinical applications of neuroimaging, illustrating when specific types of MRI techniques are clinically helpful and what kinds of applications these are useful for (or not!). The content of the course ranges from introductory content to more advanced optional content for those who wish to develop their understanding even further.

Some modules (e.g. advanced MRI sequences) are more technical while other modules are more interpretational; you may take any or all modules, as you desire. However, please note that the course does not explain how to practically acquire MRI data; as described above, the course focuses instead on applications of imaging.

What does the course cover?

The course comprehensively covers MRI of the adult brain, divided into 5 inter-linked modules, which describe

Please note at this time we have not included other imaging modalities such as PET, CT, MEG or EEG. As this course is brand new, we would love to hear your feedback on any topics you might like to see included in future. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any suggestions you might have by emailing win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk.

How long will the course take to complete?

The course is self-paced and completion time will vary depending on your prior knowledge and the level of understanding you wish to achieve by the end of the course. The course content includes approximately 50 hours of contents, including lectures and various types of interactive content. You may choose to complete the whole course, or only specific modules depending on your interests. 

The first version of this course was estimated to take 4-6 months to complete if regular time was set aside. As the course has grown over time, the amount of materials is now quite substantial. A guide that may be useful for planning is:

1. If you are planning to set aside time to watch 1 lecture per week:

• To complete 1 module: each module might take 6-8 weeks to complete. 
• To complete the whole course: there are 5 modules in total. So, at a pace of 1 lecture per week it may take approx. 10 months.

2. If you are planning on taking the course like a ‘workshop’:

Many people are interested in a particular subset of the modules. Each module topic is designed to be similar to a weekend learning workshop. 2 to 3 days should be sufficient to complete one module, watching two lectures in the morning and two in the afternoon, with additional time to explore tutorials/optional materials.  

How much does the course cost?

We have aimed to make this course maximally accessible by keeping the charges minimal. The course costs £55 per registrant, which includes a CPD certificate upon successful completion of the course materials. The £55 is used to cover the annual cost for this certification service.

What will happen once I’ve signed up?

You will be emailed instructions on how to log into our online learning platform Canvas, where the course is hosted. Please note that Canvas supports Google Chrome (preferred), Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Canvas, at present, does not support Internet Explorer.

Once you have completed all the required materials, please email win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk so that we can organise and issue your CPD certificate!

If you have any questions about the course, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk

FAQs

I'm an undergraduate, would this course be suitable for me? 

The course does not make specific assumptions about knowledge as it is targeted to a broad range of specialties. However, it does roughly assume the equivalent knowledge of a completed undergraduate degree and/or hands on familiarity with MRI. If you are interested in the course then you are of course very welcome to sign up, but you may feel the level of assumed knowledge is sometimes quite advanced.  

Do you have any financial aids or fee waivers for individuals from low-income countries/backgrounds? 

At present, we're sorry to say that we do not have financial aids or fee waived registration options. The small registration fee (£55 for the full course) was introduced to cover the cost of providing the CPD accreditation and to keep the course as widely accessible as possible. This fee is lower than most reduced rates for most courses. 

Can I watch the lectures in real-time? 

All lectures and tutorials have been pre-recorded and uploaded onto our online learning platform Canvas, so that they can be viewed in your own time. Unfortunately, there is no live or any real-time version. 

Can I get a pdf handout of the lecture slides? 

Sorry for any inconvenience here but the slides have not been uploaded as a pdf onto Canvas. This is partly for practical reasons to do with the way the lectures are created (they are created as movies to allow the sliding intros and interactive popups, rather than powerpoints) and partly to minimise the chances of the course materials accidentally leaving Canvas.

Does the £55 course fee include the CPD certificate?

The course fee of £55 covers everything, including the CPD certificate. There are no additional hidden costs. The course is divided into various modules - once you have completed either the whole course, or the modules of interest to you, please email us and we will issue your certificate for the applicable number of credits.

Is anyone eligible to apply for the course?

Yes, anyone can sign up for the course. We have had a range of registrants from many locations and disciplines. There are no entry requirements or restrictions on who can take the course.  

How flexible is the course to a busy schedule?

The course is designed specifically with the busy clinician in mind, so can be completed flexibly in your own time to work around busy clinical, research or educational schedules. 

Does this course provide credit accumulation and transfer (CATS) recognition points? 

Sorry, no. The online course was designed as a specialist resource mainly for those in active clinical roles, rather than as an alternative to a formal higher education course. CATS points are awarded for many of the University of Oxford’s postgraduate award-bearing programmes (such as MSc/MA/PG Dip/PG Cert). The online neuroimaging course offers CPD credits but is not (currently) a formal award-bearing degree. The online course is therefore more like a workshop with expert lectures provided at a much reduced cost and without the need to submit any course-work for marking.

Do you offer extensions?

Sorry, no. To be fair to all participants and to enable periodic updates to course materials, we regret that access is limited to the course year of sign-up. If you have not had time to complete the entire course, we can issue partial CPD credits. Please e-mail win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk to request a CPD certificate for the modules you have been able to complete. 

If you do want to complete the whole course but will need more time, you can re-register on the University shop to join the following year’s course. Please email win-clinmricourse@ndcn.ox.ac.uk to receive updates on the release date for the next year’s course.