The prevalence of dementia is escalating world-wide and knowledge deficits remain a barrier to community inclusiveness and quality care. The need for quality, comprehensive education has been identified as a key priority for global action plans on dementia. The Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course (UDMOOC) offers the potential to improve dementia knowledge globally. Completion rates for the UDMOOC (2016–2017) were on average 42% of enrolments, and 69% of participants care or have cared for people with dementia. The current study shows baseline dementia knowledge was positively related to previous learning about dementia from various types of exposure to the condition including having family members and/or working with people with the condition, and having undertaken dementia education. However, knowledge of all participant groups showed substantial improvements after completion of the UDMOOC. This was shown regardless of educational background and previous experience of dementia, and group differences after completing the UDMOOC were minimised. The UDMOOC is therefore an effective knowledge translation strategy to improve dementia knowledge for a diverse, international learner group.

痴呆症的流行在全世界范围内不断升级，知识匮乏仍然是社区包容性和高质量护理的障碍。高质量，全面的教育需求已被确定为痴呆症全球行动计划的关键优先事项。了解痴呆症大规模在线公开课程（UDMOOC）提供了在全球范围内改善痴呆症知识的潜力。UDMOOC（2016-2017年）的完成率平均为入学人数的42％，而69％的参与者护理或照顾了痴呆症患者。当前的研究表明，基线痴呆症知识与以前从各种类型的疾病暴露中获得的有关痴呆症的知识成正相关，包括与家庭成员和/或与患有该病症的人一起工作以及接受了痴呆症教育。然而，在完成UDMOOC之后，所有参与者组的知识都显示出实质性的进步。无论受过何种教育背景和以前的痴呆经验如何，都可以证明这一点，并且将完成UDMOOC之后的组别差异降至最低。因此，UDMOOC是一种有效的知识翻译策略，可为多样化的国际学习者群体改善痴呆症知识。