Hall Michael A, Cuttini Marina, Flemmer Andreas W, Greisen Gorm, Marlow Neil, Schulze Andreas, Smith Susan, Valls-i-Soler Adolf, Truffert Patrick, Conole Gráinne, de Laat Maarten
Department of Neonatal Medicine, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton, UK.
Eur J Pediatr. 2009 Apr;168(4):449-56. doi: 10.1007/s00431-008-0770-6. Epub 2008 Jul 4.
The provision of specialist postgraduate training is increasingly challenging for the acute medical specialties. There are often small numbers of trainees and tutors in any one centre, and service commitments may limit attendance at educational activities. Online learning can provide high-quality education to trainees from large geographical areas. We report the outcomes of an experimental educational project which provided an online postgraduate programme in neonatology. Ninety trainees from 14 countries, primarily European, participated. Six educational modules in neonatal topics were delivered over a 1-year period, within a "Virtual Learning Environment". Trainees were divided into multi-national groups; two online tutors supported each group. Analysis of online activity demonstrated that active participation was high initially (100%) but gradually declined to 46% in the final module; tutor participation followed a similar pattern. Eighty-six trainees were contactable at the end of the programme, and 67 (78%) completed an evaluation questionnaire. Of these, 92% reported that participation had "added value" to their training, attributable to the high-quality curriculum, the educational resources, collaborative networking and the sharing of best practice. Eleven (79%) tutors completed the questionnaire, with all reporting that participation was of educational value. The main limiting factor for trainees and tutors was insufficient time. This project confirms that multi-national online education in neonatology is feasible and transferable, but for this approach to be viable formal accreditation and protected time for both trainees and tutors are required.
对于急症医学专科而言，提供专科研究生培训的挑战日益增大。在任何一个中心，学员和导师的数量往往都很少，而且服务任务可能会限制参加教育活动的机会。在线学习可为来自广大地理区域的学员提供高质量教育。我们报告了一个实验性教育项目的成果，该项目提供了一个新生儿学在线研究生课程。来自14个国家（主要是欧洲国家）的90名学员参与其中。在“虚拟学习环境”中，用1年时间提供了6个关于新生儿主题的教育模块。学员被分成多国小组；每组有两名在线导师提供支持。对在线活动的分析表明，最初的积极参与度很高（100%），但在最后一个模块中逐渐降至46%；导师的参与情况也呈现类似模式。在课程结束时能够联系到86名学员，其中67名（78%）完成了一份评估问卷。在这些学员中，92%报告称参与对他们的培训“有附加值”，这归因于高质量的课程、教育资源、协作网络以及最佳实践的分享。11名（79%）导师完成了问卷，所有人都报告称参与具有教育价值。对学员和导师来说，主要的限制因素是时间不足。该项目证实，新生儿学的多国在线教育是可行且可推广的，但要使这种方法可行，需要正式认证以及为学员和导师提供受保护的时间。
