Abstract
BackgroundThe Internet is increasingly being applied in health education worldwide; however there is little knowledge of its use in Chinese higher education institutions. The present study provides the first review and highlights the deficiencies and required future advances in Chinese Internet-based health education.MethodsTwo authors independently conducted a duplicate Internet search in order to identify information regarding Internet-based health education in China.ResultsThe findings showed that Internet-based education began in China in September 1998. Currently, only 16 of 150 (10.7%) health education institutions in China offer fee-based online undergraduate degree courses, awarding associates and/or bachelors degrees. Fifteen of the 16 institutions were located in the middle or on the eastern coast of China, where were more developed than other regions. Nursing was the most popular discipline in Internet-based health education, while some other disciplines, such as preventive medicine, were only offered at one university. Besides degree education, Chinese institutions also offered non-degree online training and free resources. The content was mainly presented in the form of PowerPoint slides or videos for self-learning. Very little online interactive mentoring was offered with any of the courses.ConclusionsThere is considerable potential for the further development of Internet-based health education in China. These developments should include a focus on strengthening cooperation among higher education institutions in order to develop balanced online health curricula, and on enhancing distance education in low- and middle-income regions to meet extensive learning demands.
Highlights
The Internet is increasingly being applied in health education worldwide; there is little knowledge of its use in Chinese higher education institutions
There is considerable potential for the further development of Internet-based health education in China. These developments should include a focus on strengthening cooperation among higher education institutions in order to develop balanced online health curricula, and on enhancing distance education in lowand middle-income regions to meet extensive learning demands
We reviewed the online health education programmes as to what disciplines they offered, whether they offered a formal degree after students completing courses or if they just provided online open courses for self-learning without awarding a degree
Summary
The Internet is increasingly being applied in health education worldwide; there is little knowledge of its use in Chinese higher education institutions. The present study provides the first review and highlights the deficiencies and required future advances in Chinese Internet-based health education. Internet-based education, which has been defined as using the Internet to deliver and access learning materials, interact with other learners and instructors, and obtain support during the learning process [5], is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. Since there is little knowledge of the status of Internet-based health education in Chinese higher education institutions, we conducted this content analysis of websites to provide relevant information and discuss the future development of the field
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