Crowdsourcing in health professions education: What radiography educators can learn from other disciplines

Abstract Objectives Crowdsourcing works through an institution outsourcing a function normally performed by an employee or group of individuals. Within a crowdsource users, known as the crowd, form a community who voluntarily undertake a task which involves the pooling of knowledge resources. A literature review was undertaken to identify how the tool is being used in health professions education, and potential for use in radiography education. Key Findings 17 papers were returned. Literature identified was assessed against an established crowdsourcing definition. Reviewing these yielded four themes for discussion: student selection procedures, lesson planning, teaching materials and assessment. Conclusion Crowdsourcing is associated with innovative activities through collective solution seeking via a large network of users. It is increasingly being adopted in healthcare training and maybe transferable to educational activities within the field of radiography education.