J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2015;35(3):211-9. doi: 10.1002/chp.21295.

Networked Learning and Network Science: Potential Applications to Health Professionals' Continuing Education and Development.

The Journal of continuing education in the health professions

Alvaro Margolis, John Parboosingh

PMID: 26378427 DOI: 10.1002/chp.21295

Abstract

Prior interpersonal relationships and interactivity among members of professional associations may impact the learning process in continuing medical education (CME). On the other hand, CME programs that encourage interactivity between participants may impact structures and behaviors in these professional associations. With the advent of information and communication technologies, new communication spaces have emerged that have the potential to enhance networked learning in national and international professional associations and increase the effectiveness of CME for health professionals. In this article, network science, based on the application of network theory and other theories, is proposed as an approach to better understand the contribution networking and interactivity between health professionals in professional communities make to their learning and adoption of new practices over time.

© 2015 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the Council on Continuing Medical Education, Association for Hospital Medical Education.

Keywords: Internet; communities of practice; continuing medical education; social network analysis; sociocultural learning

MeSH terms

• Education, Medical, Continuing / methods
• Education, Medical, Continuing / trends
• Humans
• Internet*
• Interprofessional Relations*
• Learning*
• Social Media / trends
• Statistics as Topic / methods
• Statistics as Topic / trends

Publication Types

• Journal Article