Validating e-learning in continuing pharmacy education: user acceptance and knowledge change

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Samuel Edelbring¹  Tadeusz Librowski²  Krzysztof Nesterowicz² 

[1] Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Radioligands, Medical College, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University, Medyczna 9 Street, 30-688, Krakow, Poland;

关键词: E-learning;    Continuing pharmacy education;    Lifelong learning;    Just-in-time learning;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-14-33

 received in 2013-07-01, accepted in 2014-01-24,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundContinuing pharmacy education is becoming mandatory in most countries in order to keep the professional license valid. Increasing number of pharmacists are now using e-learning as part of their continuing education. Consequently, the increasing popularity of this method of education calls for standardization and validation practices. The conducted research explored validation aspects of e-learning in terms of knowledge increase and user acceptance.MethodsTwo e-courses were conducted as e-based continuing pharmacy education for graduated pharmacists. Knowledge increase and user acceptance were the two outcome measured. The change of knowledge in the first e-course was measured by a pre- and post-test and results analysed by the Wilcoxon signed–rank test. The acceptance of e-learning in the second e-course was investigated by a questionnaire and the results analysed using descriptive statistics.ResultsResults showed that knowledge increased significantly (p < 0.001) by 16 pp after participation in the first e-course. Among the participants who responded to the survey in the second course, 92% stated that e-courses were effective and 91% stated that they enjoyed the course.ConclusionsThe study shows that e-learning is a viable medium of conducting continuing pharmacy education; e-learning is effective in increasing knowledge and highly accepted by pharmacists from various working environments such as community and hospital pharmacies, faculties of pharmacy or wholesales.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Nesterowicz et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014