Healthcare: E-Learning An Effective Tool

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

For healthcare workers, e-learning has been found to be as effective as traditional learning in an office.

The World Health Organization, along with the Imperial College London, conducted a study evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning for healthcare workers. According to Reuters, their results indicate e-learning was as effective as traditional office learning and can be used by millions of healthcare students to participate in online studies. 

iHealth Beat reports online e-learning requires undergrads use an internet connection, while offline learning requires devices such as USB drives. Both were found to be effective forms of e-learning. 

Josip Car, the study’s leader, said the real barrier to e-learning is access to internet connections and computers, but this problem could be solved through investments. According to Car, distance learning would enable even the poorest countries to train health professionals. 

In a release from the Imperial College London, Car said, “Universities should encourage the development of e-learning curricula and use online resources to reach out to students internationally.” 

“This report was commissioned by WHO to ensure that there is robust evidence to support the increase in the numbers of health workers being trained,” said Dr Erica Wheeler, a technical officer in the Department of Health Workforce in the World Health Organization. 

“There is also a need for the provision of guidance on what methods are most suitable and effective for different pedagogical approaches,  in the light of ever increasing demands and pressures faced by low and middle income countries to use technology to improve for health workforce education and training.”