Is e-learning the future of dentistry?

Michael Sultan considers the pros and cons of online education.

Although online learning existed before the outbreak of the pandemic, it seems that since Covid-19 became part of our lives that a day doesn’t go by when I’m not emailed multiple offers for online courses, webinars and other digital learning experiences.

Of course, during the pandemic this was rather useful. We all had to get our CPD somewhere, and while services were frozen it was a good chance for us to brush up on our skills. Plus, with face-to-face contact impossible, online learning really did provide a safety net for us to fall back on.

But is this form of education likely to become the norm?

What got me thinking about this topic was that I came across a study that examined the impact of e-learning on dental educators and their opinions about adopting this method of instruction more in the future. This study, that spoke to a small pool of educators, found that the majority of these individuals had gained confidence in teaching via digital means during this time and hoped to adopt these technologies more in the future so that blended learning approaches were available to all.