Learner Engagement, Teaching Effectiveness and Digital Proficiency in In-person Versus Livestream Continuing Medical Education

Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (10/27/25) Colbenson, Gretchen A.; Cook, David A.; Stephenson, Christopher R.

A comparison of in-person and livestream continuing medical education (CME) formats concluded that livestreaming is an effective alternative to in-person CME for all learners, even with varying levels of digital competence. The nonrandomized comparison study, conducted at a CME course in 2022, measured participant responses with the Learner Engagement Inventory, CME Teaching Effectiveness instrument, and the Pew Digital Savviness Classifier. In all, 228 participants self-selected their learning modality and completed more than 6,000 evaluations for 37 presentations. The results found no significant differences between in-person and livestream attendees in terms of learner engagement and teaching effectiveness, nor between livestream participants with varying levels of digital proficiency. "Livestream CME seems to be a reasonable option, regardless of learners' digital proficiency," the study authors concluded.

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