E-Learning in Type I Midecal Uneversites of Iran

Background and purpose: Changes in medicine and medical education has yield to employment of new teaching methods and a shift to more student centered strategies in education. E-learning is one of these methods that can be used with greater flexibility and has the potential to enhance medical education. For our universities, using e-learning strategies in current curricula and continuous education is an inevitable issue and universities have begun their way in this era.Methods: we reviewed the websites of 9 type 1 Iranian universities of medical sciences including Ahvaz (http://ajums.ac.ir),Iran(http://www.iums.ac.ir),Isfahan(http://www.mui.ac.ir),Kerman(http://www.kmu.ac.ir),Mashad(http://www.mums.ac.ir)ShahidBeheshti (http://www.sbmu.ac.ir), Shiraz (http://www.sums.ac.ir), Tabriz (http://www.tbzmed.ac.ir) and Tehran (http://www.tums.ac.ir)universities of medical sciences.We tried to access these sites twice per week for two weeks. Two of the authors performed the search within these sites separately as follows: the homepages’ main menus were reviewed to find links to any kind of e-learning activity. This was done for the homepages of vice-chancellors of education too.Then if the site had a search option, the keywords of “e-learning”, “blended learning” and “electronic learning” were searched both in English and Persian. Then existing e-learning activities were assessed according to formal site utilization, providing interactive content, registration option for students and faculties and tracking option for students’ activities. The results of two authors were compared to reach a consensus.Results: Among these 8 universities, there was just one straight link to distance learning office in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences’ website and a link to online continuous medical education in Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ website. Others had no link for an office or a kind ofe-learning activity in their homepages.Conclusion: We concluded from our search of Iranian medical universities that our universities have a long way toward deployment of effective e-learning in medical education and it seems that current efforts are performed individually, not as an organized activity. For establishment of successful e-learning systems, universities should pay more attention to this area, provide facilities and encourage qualitative implementation of e-learning in medical education.