Electronic learning as a New Educational Technology and its Integration in Medical Education Curricula

Increasing access to the softwares and hardwares for electronic learning (e-learning), especially World Wide Web (WWW), has opened a new horizon to educational institutions. It seems that using these facilities helps to attain several goals as educational quality indicators, including student-centeredness, life-long learning, active and interactive learning, and using multimedia in learning. Although some educational institutions have provided all their courses electronically, only little evidence has been published indicating the evaluation results of such programs. Considering the general advantages of e-learning and its specific potentials in medical education, its integration into current university curricula seems to be inevitable, in a way that current curricula contain a blend of traditional and electronic learning situations. This is more demanding for continuing medical education programs, which face a huge number of learners with a vast diversity in learning needs, expertise, and interests. The importance of change in university programs, as well as high expenses for preparing e-learning infrastructures, especially soft wares, necessitates a long term programmed approach to the integration of e-learning in traditional curricula. To do this, using the experiences of other universities, organizing resources and activities, and using the existing capabilities in the public and private sectors is essential. This approach requires a scientific insight about different aspects of e-learning as well as a change plan according to the present situation and justified goals in medical education. If it is complemented with a serious intention on the policymakers' side, it will be expected to accomplish valuable steps towards quality improvement and efficiency of medical education in the near future.