Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
BMC Med Educ. 2014 Jan 27;14:16. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-14-16.
The Internet is increasingly being applied in health education worldwide; however there is little knowledge of its use in Chinese higher education institutions. The present study provides the first review and highlights the deficiencies and required future advances in Chinese Internet-based health education.
Two authors independently conducted a duplicate Internet search in order to identify information regarding Internet-based health education in China.
The findings showed that Internet-based education began in China in September 1998. Currently, only 16 of 150 (10.7%) health education institutions in China offer fee-based online undergraduate degree courses, awarding associates and/or bachelors degrees. Fifteen of the 16 institutions were located in the middle or on the eastern coast of China, where were more developed than other regions. Nursing was the most popular discipline in Internet-based health education, while some other disciplines, such as preventive medicine, were only offered at one university. Besides degree education, Chinese institutions also offered non-degree online training and free resources. The content was mainly presented in the form of PowerPoint slides or videos for self-learning. Very little online interactive mentoring was offered with any of the courses.
There is considerable potential for the further development of Internet-based health education in China. These developments should include a focus on strengthening cooperation among higher education institutions in order to develop balanced online health curricula, and on enhancing distance education in low- and middle-income regions to meet extensive learning demands.
互联网在全球范围内越来越多地应用于健康教育；然而，对于中国高等教育机构在这方面的应用，我们知之甚少。本研究首次对中国基于互联网的健康教育进行了综述，强调了其不足之处和未来的发展方向。
两位作者独立进行了重复的互联网搜索，以确定中国基于互联网的健康教育信息。
研究结果表明，中国的互联网教育始于 1998 年 9 月。目前，中国只有 150 所健康教育机构中的 16 所（10.7%）提供收费的在线本科课程，授予副学士和/或学士学位。这 16 所机构中的 15 所位于中国中东部沿海地区，这些地区比其他地区更发达。护理是互联网健康教育中最受欢迎的学科，而其他一些学科，如预防医学，只在一所大学开设。除了学位教育，中国的一些机构还提供非学位在线培训和免费资源。这些资源的内容主要以幻灯片或视频的形式呈现，供自主学习。很少有课程提供在线互动辅导。
中国有很大的潜力进一步发展基于互联网的健康教育。这些发展应该包括加强高等教育机构之间的合作，以开发均衡的在线健康课程，并加强中低收入地区的远程教育，以满足广泛的学习需求。
