EDUCATION
ONLINE EDUCATION NEEDS TO THRIVE, NOT JUST SURVIVE IAPCO Member: Kenes Group Author: Katy Greenland, Grants Manager Education & Health
Planning education in the context of COVID-19 poses
• Reinforcing learning soon after completion helps HCPs
challenges for all medical education providers. The
reflect on the new knowledge they have gained,
environment in which we are operating has changed
consolidating their education.
considerably and will continue to do so because of the global health crisis. The medical field arguably the most
• Highly skilled moderators can help transform
affected and Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) face an
webinars into an engaging, enjoyable and effective
increasingly complex array of pressures; one of which is
learning experience.
to maintain their expertise and keep abreast of the latest science and best practices in supporting their patients.
• Incorporating real-world evidence and the patient perspective enriches medical education.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an influential factor in the shift toward online education formats and, in this time of transition,
For virtual meetings - and online medical education alike -
agility and adaptation must be our guides. Online education
we have access to a greater amount of data about the learner
offers valuable tools to deliver medical education to
experience than is possible to collect with face-to-face
healthcare providers around the world, but we must
education. This gives us an important opportunity to take
appreciate that everyone has a different learning style and,
a deep dive into the data, enabling us to understand more
for those learners who prefer hands-on, they can find
about the ways in which HCPs access our education. We
education delivered via zoom harder to engage with.
can use these insights to fine-tune the continuing medical education (CME) and optimise the learner experience, as
So how can we deliver effective, engaging education to
well as to better understand the needs and preferences of
healthcare providers in a world where we are all just a
individuals as they work through the material.
talking head in a box? Here are some suggestions: The key to our medical education remaining robust • Designing education with a diverse mix of formats - such as through the pandemic and into the future will be a doing mixed reality or attractive videos - will accommodate commitment to innovation, interactivity, quality and a spectrum of styles helping more learners to get the most responsiveness to the needs of HCPs that draw on out of the given content programme.
the rich array of data we can access.
• Embedding interactivity throughout each module - such as polls, quizzes, and Q&A discussions - works well to increase engagement. | Dec 2020
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