E-Learning, Distance Learning, Online Learning in the setting of Medical Education: A Review of Current Literature

Electronic learning, as the name implies, is a non-traditional form of teaching where the student is not always physically present in the same time or place as the educator. Today, this largely means using the Internet to provide students with educational materials, while attempting to deliver a more personal experience that is more suited to the student’s schedule and learning style. From the institution’s perspective, e-learning has allowed for increased access and capacity, diversified the student population, and thereby increased market share in the educational market. With the inherent importance of a high quality medical education, both undergraduate and graduate, many have advocated against e-learning citing lack of appropriate technology, discrepancy in instructional methodology, and lack of consistency in paradigmatic institutionalization of e-learning. The focus of this review is to assess such attitudes toward e-learning, and the efficacy and benefits of e-learning in anesthesiology resident education at present.