Focus: Online Education and Technology Introduction

Extract

Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) educators continue to look for new and better ways to teach students the knowledge and skills that they will need when they graduate and become employed in the laboratory field. Educators are also challenged by administration to increase the size of their classes (but with fewer resources), make their programs more cost-effective, and meet workforce needs. In recent years, to meet these demands, distance and online learning opportunities have substantially increased in MLS programs. Currently, nineteen MLS and twenty-five Clinical Laboratory Technology programs are listed as having components of online education.¹

Originally, this focus series was planned to discuss distance education and technology. However, as the articles evolved, it became evident that using the narrower term of online education was more precise when coupled with the term technology. The Focus section has been divided among two Clinical Laboratory Science journal issues with the summer issue focusing specifically on technology (Using Technology in Resource Limited Countries for Competency Based Education and Training and Moving from Face-to-Face to Online Teaching) and the education supplement discussing effective online education techniques (Staying Connected: Online Education Engagement and Retention using Educational Technology Tools and Preparing Online Students for Comprehensive Examinations). A few definitions are important, as many different terms are employed when discussing these topics.

Distance learning is an educational situation where “the instructor and students are separated by time, location, or both”² and can be either synchronous (real-time, instructor-led event in which all participants are virtually “in class” at the…