MedEduPro (formerly i-cme), held a webinar on “The Future Of E-Learning And Career Opportunities For Healthcare Professionals” in collaboration with the industry expert Dr. Chinnapapagari Satheesh Kumar Reddy on the Friday, 9th July, 2021 between 5pm – 6pm IST.

The MedEduPro team greeted everyone present and invited the guest speaker Dr. Chinnapapagari Satheesh Kumar Reddy to conduct the session. The speaker gave an overview of the topics that were to be discussed and began with an introduction on ‘the contrasts between conventional learning and e-learning’.

He discussed the advantages of e-learning over traditional learning such as accessibility, affordability, consistency, higher retention for the student. Further, he touched upon the scalability, efficiency, the better return on investment and lower carbon footprint from a corporate perspective.

Over the years e-learning has evolved. Initially, it used to be single file software that would be available on a CD or floppy disk. Then it progressed to web based e-learning, which further evolved to the real-time, such as, through video-conferencing software. Web based e-learning has allowed for cross geography asynchronous learning. It is predicted that the upcoming e-learning modules would have content in the form of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality making e-learning multidimensional, dynamic and engaging.

Dr. Satheesh then brought attention to the generational differences in learning styles. He emphasised that in general, active learning results in better outcomes and retention than passive learning. To create a good e-learning module, we have to account for these different learning styles, attention spans, retention and recall capabilities, etc.

He discussed the current e-learning statistics and scope of growth of e-learning in the near future. He predicts that by 2027, the market would be worth 240 to 280 million dollars.

He then elaborated on the future needs and importance of assessing current trends to design e-learning courses. He discussed in detail about the upcoming paradigm shift, and predicted that in the next 5 to 10 years the technology trends in e-learning will veer toward, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, simulation scenarios and gamification with integrated reward systems. The content trends in healthcare and technology are also expected to change to more continuous and progressive learning modules to accommodate the continuously evolving nature of these fields, rather than the conventional one-and-done models of learning. These continuous models of learning could include updates in good manufacturing practices, surgical updates, technology updates and more.

Additionally, he predicts the rise of collaborative learning, that is – team learning, social learning, project or problem based and peer to peer e-learning. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into any e-learning platform is now a standard industry practice. The use of AI is predicted to increase, resulting in adaptive learning platforms that can be tailored to meet the needs of every learner. The benefits of AI integrated platforms are the real-time actionable insights that both the learner and the creator of the e-learning module can use to optimise learning. These insights and notification alerts can help improve learner engagement and participation.

Many industry leaders like the NHS and IBM are ahead of the curve due to their proactive investments in digital transformation and regularisation of information access. These emerging trends of e-learning brings forth another question to the forefront, the question of infrastructure and regulation in terms of data security and ownership of digital data generated by the user. There needs to be a lot of reform in the rules surrounding data security, encryption/decryption and governance of data. These changes are expected to take hold in the coming 3 to 5 years.

The guest speaker then opened a line of communication with the audience in order to address and answer their questions on the subject.

Question and answer session:

Q: Does e-learning simply refer to streaming recorded videos or it something more?

A: No, e-learning refers to much more than just streaming videos over the internet, or just live sessions. It involves the entire planning and architecture of learning beyond the bounds of a conventional classroom. For optimal e-learning there has to be more active engagement of the learner through interactive elements like animations, debates, team based activities, etc.

Q: What about e-learning in rural areas, would e-learning be adopted there as well?

A: Yes, although the adoption of good e-learning practices may be slower in rural areas than urban areas, it is sure to happen. Rural areas have a lot of untapped potential, with advent of more affordable devices and acceptance of modern technologies rural areas will also be able to adapt to e-learning more easily in the coming years. Some methods that can be used to make e-learning more accessible to these sectors of society are through adaptive bitrate features, offline learning enablement and breaking lessons into micro chunks.

Q: What would be the feasibility of integrating many interactive elements into a single learning platform, would it be compatible with all devices?

A: In the coming one or two years we will have to wait for a solution emerge. This is problem that occurs in the ‘in-between’ periods when new technologies emerge. We expect these incompatibilities to sort themselves out leading to smoother glitch-free outcomes in e-learning.

Q: Will e-learning course be valid if the person wants to pursue healthcare education abroad afterwards?

A: Yes, if the course you are learning from offers a standardised accreditation, then there should not be any problem in using that course to pursue higher education abroad.

Q: I’m a medical writer, what are the available courses to grow my career in my medical writing?

A: You can visit the website www.onlinemedicalwriting.comfor further information and resources to advance your career in this field.

Q: What is the scope of e-learning in dental and medical colleges?

A: The scope is huge, this is because with emerging technologies there is a possibility of introducing a third dimension to learning in medical and dental modules. This could be in the form of augmented reality with in-depth visual simulation of procedures, organ systems, etc.

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