How to Effectively Learn Online

Keeping up to date with the latest developments and technologies is important to be successful in just about any profession or industry. When it comes to health care learning and health care professions, it can be a matter of life and death.

That's a big reason why continuous health care learning is compulsory for most in the industry. Knowledge and skills not only have to be maintained but constantly updated and upgraded. "Best practices" in health care are constantly evolving and changing.

This, perhaps, is the biggest reason why online learning - or, e-learning, as it's often referred - is becoming such an integral and common part of health care learning and is on a steady rise in the medical field. There are many benefits to online learning, some of the most prominent being it's less costly for both trainers and trainees, it can drastically cut training time by condensing and focusing material, it can make it easy to expand and update material and, of course, it's more convenient as health care learning is done on a student's own time, at a place of his or her convenience.

Concorde's growing role in health care learning online

This is a large reason why Concorde is expanding its presence with online health care learning. Currently, Concordes Online Campus is involved with two programs - the Health Care Administration - B.S. Online Degree and the Surgical Technology Degree Completion Online Program. With the ever-growing presence of online health care learning, it's assured that the list of programs taught, at least partially, online will continue to grow.

Five healthful tips for health care learning online

The website eLearningIndustry recently listed five tips for eLearning professionals, but they certainly hold true for students learning online as well.

• Make it visual. Online content that includes graphics and photos, rather than simply text, can make it much more compelling and interesting. And, we all know that when learning is interesting and fun, more information is retained.
• Have a good idea what it is you need to know and what skills you must have. In other words, know yourself, be honest with yourself about your knowledge and abilities and then set out to "fill in the gaps" of the knowledge and skill sets you'll need to be a comprehensive and capable practitioner in your field.
• Improve skill and task mastery with online scenarios. One of the biggest advantages of online learning is that it can be easily adapted to provide the learner with life-like scenarios requiring you to use the skills you'll need to be successful in the field.
• Take the online learning content and localize it to your community. Most online learning programs are seen in a wide variety of locations. But, all content can be adapted to fit the needs of your local community or communities.
• Make good use of webinars. Webinars are virtual training events that are typically live but can be recorded for later viewing. They can cover a wide range of topics and give health care learners the chance to interact with their instructors and peers remotely.

As is the case with all online learning endeavors, health care learning online is effective only if you have clear goals going in and know which materials and information you need to study to get you to that goal. Good luck with your online learning.