Abstract
E-learning and distance education opportunities in clinical chemistry were reviewed in 2005 by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) Working Group on Distance Education chaired by D. Juretic, under the auspices of the Committee on Education and Curriculum Development chaired by L.C.
Allen. A second survey of national societies was carried out in 2010 by the Committee on Education and Curriculum Development chaired by P.
Kocna and the Working Group on Internet-Distance Learning chaired by V.T. Thanh.
The aim of this study was to summarize changes and trends in the use of e-learning and distance education by member societies of the IFCC over a 5-year period. Surveys of national societies were performed using printed questionnaires in 2005 and by on-line questionnaire forms in 2010.
The response rate from member-societies was ~50% (34 in 2005 and 42 in 2010). National society websites increased from 70.6% in 2005 to 90.5% in 2010.
National society websites with educational sections increased from 41.2% in 2005 to 57.1% in 2010. Lectures and presentations published on websites are still the most widely used form of educational resource (79.2% in 2010 and 71.4% in 2005).
In 2008 the IFCC Committee on Education and Curriculum Development published an on-line Educational Resource Database recommending 254 resources for education in clinical chemistry and was visited more than 1790 times by visitors from 86 countries. This database is regularly used by 12 national societies and 40% of societies recommended distance education on their websites.
The internet educational resource most often recommended by national society websites was the NLM PubMed database (mean mark 2.3) followed by Google (mean mark 2.38). A majority of national societies (76.2%) preferred a unifi ed IFCC educational strategy and many responses promoted the concept of IFCC education credits (59.5% of responding national societies).