Professor hopes to gain traction for online health class

An online cancer prevention course sponsored by the Florida Department of Health is struggling to enroll students.

The course, called “Take Control to Reduce Your Cancer Risk,” was first offered in April 2015 for a $20 fee, said Dr. Linda Bobroff, a certified nutritionist and the UF professor who designed the course.

After less-than-stellar enrollment numbers, the course was made free in March 2016. However, Bobroff said only 75 to 100 people have signed up so far.

Bobroff said she originally designed the course in the early ’90s as a way to raise awareness of lifestyles and behaviors that can be changed to reduce the risk of getting different cancers.

The program was stopped after the price of photocopying and stamps became too high. Bobroff said she revived the course when the rise of online learning had once again made it relatively easy and cheap to set up a new class.

“All this information was out there,” Bobroff said, “but it wasn’t a curriculum that motivated people and informed people and empowered people to make actual behavior changes.”

After the course was opened, Bobroff said in order to make the material available to more low-income citizens and increase enrollment, the course became free the following year.

Although Bobroff said this change has not helped to dramatically increase enrollment, she is hopeful that through social media and word of mouth the program will eventually be used by people internationally.

“I’m just hoping it will take off,” Bobroff said. “It can have worldwide exposure. Anyone can take this class who can read English.”

Since the course is online, Bobroff said she hopes to update the material periodically with new information and breakthroughs as they occur.

UF professor Dr. Scott Tomar is a dentist who worked with Bobroff on the course by reviewing it for accuracy and accessibility.

“It essentially takes what we know from scientific literature and puts it into a format and structure that makes it much more user-friendly,” Tomar said.

Despite the small number of people who registered for the course, Tomar said he is optimistic about the future of stopping preventable cancer.

“We are already seeing decreases in several of the major forms of cancer, particularly lung cancer, which is almost entirely due to behavioral changes in the population,” he said.

More information about the course can be found at tinyurl.com/takecontrolUF.