E-Learning for GP Educators

John Sandars, Mayur Lakhani, Dr. Ian Banks

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781846190117
• eBook ISBN: 9781315357478
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

This work includes a Foreword by Mayur Lakhani, Chairman of Council, Royal College of General Practitioners. General practitioners, as a widely dispersed group, are particularly reliant on e-learning. This book provides an overview of the topic and examines the past, present and future challenges, opportunities and benefits. With chapters devoted to creating a website, running short courses and standards and accreditation, this guide explores both vocational training and continuing professional development. It presents an evidence-based, practical approach for healthcare educators and practitioners with teaching responsibilities, course organisers and healthcare professionals with an interest in e-learning. "Excellent. Leading edge. As a practising GP I know just how hard it can be to keep up to date in a generalist discipline and showing progress. Having access to information is the straightforward bit - processing it and embedding it into clinical practice is the much bigger challenge as this book rightly points out. As a user of e-learning, I know how useful this technique can be if undertaken properly and to a defined standard. I have no doubt that this book will be a valuable contribution, creating an innovative learning culture and society in healthcare." - Mayur Lakhani, in his Foreword.

Chapter 1

What is e-learning?

John Sandars

Key Points

• e-learning delivers learning by any form of electronic media.
• The main impetus has been the development of new technologies.
• m-learning, using mobile technology, is an exciting recent development in e-learning.
• There are potential benefits to both the learner and the educational provider.

Introduction

There is some debate about an exact definition of e-learning, or electronic learning, but a useful definition is ‘the delivery of learning via any form of electronic media’.¹ This simple definition neatly encapsulates the two dimension of e-learning: technology and education.

The technology

There are two main reasons to start with technology. First, the development of elearning owes itself to the exciting potential for technology to be used in education, and second, there has been dominance in the development of elearning by technical experts.

Learning content can be offered in different formats, such as text or video images, and electronically delivered via a range of technologies. The quality of the different formats can be extremely high and often they are often combined to ensure maximum effect - so-called ‘multimedia’. The benefit of the wide range of different technologies is that it offers ease of access to learning content ‘any time and any place’, and the opportunity to choose from a variety of formats and delivery systems. Technology can be used to not only store and deliver content but allow quick access to resources via the internet. In addition, it can provide opportunities for interaction between tutors and learners and between groups of learners.

Most e-learning relies on the learner sat at a static computer. The e-learning content can be delivered locally by the use of CD-ROMs or more widely by using the internet to access web-based resources. The internet also allows communication between individuals. This approach provides content of high visual and auditory quality. The main disadvantage is the limited opportunities for access to the static computer.

Recently, newer technologies have enabled access at literally ‘any time and any place’. This has been called ‘m-learning’, or mobile learning.² Examples of mobile technology include:

• notebook (laptop) computers
• Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
• cellular phones
• smart phones, combining a PDA and a cellular phone.

The importance of this approach is that there has been phenomenal growth in the use, and development, of mobile technology and this trend is expected to continue. This creates exciting learning opportunities. The small screens cannot deliver very high quality visual images but are very useful for taking small ‘bite size’ pieces of educational content, such as a revision topic, whilst waiting at a bus stop.

The education

Essentially e-learning is distance, or distributed, education. The original distance educators and learners relied on the postal system but now they rely on sophisticated technology. An important aspect of this approach to learning is that the learner has a greater degree of control of how, when and where their learning takes place. Learning resources can be accessed at a time and place convenient to the learner. This has obvious advantages but there is usually less direct contact with tutors and fellow learners compared with a course that is delivered face to face.

The rapid development of e-learning has clearly focused attention on the underlying philosophy of the educational approach, the so-called pedagogy.³

Behaviourist approaches

Computer-based training was one of the earliest forms of e-learning in which the learner was given a programmed sequence of tasks. This approach has become less of a feature in e-learning. The main characteristic of this approach to learning is the provision of information without any appreciable interaction with the learner.

Cognitive constructivist approaches

Building on existing knowledge is the distinguishing feature of this educational method. This approach is facilitated by active involvement of the learner in the learning process, such as tasks, self-tests and learning exercises. Most web-based and CD-ROM-based approaches make extensive use of this method, often with the help of multimedia stimuli.

Social constructivist approaches

This method recognises the importance of interaction with other learners to share and build knowledge. This can be facilitated by the use of technology that allows collaborative learning, such as email or discussion boards.

Combining technology and education

The potential for e-learning can only be achieved if an approach is used that concentrates on the education and recognises that the role of technology is to enhance the learning, rather than trying to find educational uses for new technology.

The ideal process for developing an e-learning approach is to identify the main learning outcomes that are needed, then decide on how these can be met by using the available technology, to choose an appropriate technology for the learner and the learning outcomes and finally evaluate the design and implementation process so that it can be improved.⁴

Formal and informal learning

Informal learning is self-directed by the learner and occurs outside the often rigid boundaries of institutions and professional bodies. Learners identify their own learning needs, usually by active participation in professional activities. There is an attempt to meet these learning needs by a variety of methods. Important informal methods of e-learning include participation in internet-based discussion forums and searching websites for information (‘surfing’).

Formal education has tended to provide specific courses, usually over a protracted period of time, but many professionals require more informal approaches when they can take small amounts of learning content at the time when it is required. This is often called ‘just in time’ learning.

Asynchronous and synchronous methods

Most collaborative learning online uses asynchronous communication, where messages occur over a period of time. This is typical of email and discussion boards. A useful analogy is the posting of messages on a wall and these are read, and responded to, by other group members as and when they wish. Some users find this helpful, allowing them to reflect on the messages, but there is increasing interest in methods that allow synchronous communication. In synchronous methods, communication occurs in ‘real time’. Examples include the chat rooms available on many internet websites, such as MSN Messenger.

Blended approaches

The advantages of e-learning have become increasingly recognised but there are often barriers to fully implementing e-learning as an educational approach. These barriers include the need for resources, both human and financial, but also the acceptance by both tutors and learners. This has led to the concept of ‘blended learning’ in which e-learning approaches are used to supplement more traditional methods.

The advantages of e-learning for the educational provider

There has been great emphasis on meeting the needs of the learner (and rightly so) but e-learning can offer many advantages to the educational provider. These include:

• ease of updating course material
• ability to offer a wide range of learning approaches and topics
• less need for expensive physical resources, such as lecture theatres and libraries
• attract students for a wider area, including international
• ease of transfer of small units of course materials between courses
• opportunity to integrate e-learning with more traditional methods of course delivery, so-called ‘blended learning’.

e-learning in other contexts

A recent review of e-learning in higher educational institutions in the United States noted that over 1.6 million students took at least one online course in the Autumn of 2002, 97% of public institutions offered at least one online course and 57% of academic leaders felt that learning outcomes for online education were equal or superior to face-to-face instruction.⁵ In a recent article by Donald Klein and Mark Ware, it was noted that the annual growth rate for the use of e-learning for continuing professional education by various types of professionals, including lawyers, accountants, surveyors and healthcare professionals, in the United States was currently 100%.⁶

Conclusion

e-learning is a relatively young approach to education but it can offer exciting learning opportunities for learners if technology is appropriately used to enhance the learning experience. It is readily apparent that e-learning is not simply one approach. It is composed of a variety of methods which can be ‘mixed and matched’ depending on the requirements of both the educational ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• About the authors
• 1 What is e-learning?
• 2 e-learning for general practitioners: lessons from the recent literature
• 3 A personal experience of using e-learning
• 4 The challenge of e-learning for GP educators
• 5 The educational foundations of e-learning for healthcare professionals
• 6 Blended learning
• 7 Collaborative knowledge sharing: an e-learning approach
• 8 Choosing an e-learning product
• 9 Standards and accreditation for e-learning
• 10 The BMJ Learning approach to e-learning
• 11 The Doctors.net.uk model of e-learning
• 12 Becoming an e-tutor
• 13 Running a short course on e-learning — a GP tutor’s perspective
• 14 The Web Quest approach to e-learning
• 15 Experiences of an online learning network for GP continuing professional development
• 16 Developing an effective email discussion group
• 17 Creating a website for your VTS scheme
• 18 Introducing e-learning into an organisation
• 19 Future trends in e-learning
• 20 The opportunities and barriers to e-learning in education for primary care: a European perspective
• 21 Educational research and e-learning: responding to the challenge
• Index