Rethinking the Impact of Single Continuing Educational Activities: Navigating Complexity Through Insights from Real-World Evaluation and Contemporary Literature

Journal of CME (05/12/25) Schaefer, Robert; Stein, Joerg; Niven, Louise; et al.

A descriptive analysis aims to identify patterns in real-world evaluation data and contemporary continuing education (CE) literature, offering insights into the impact of a single CE activity on improving or maintaining achievements. This primarily concerns improvement in key outcomes, including performance, patient health, and/or community well-being. This presents significant challenges in designing an objective and valid assessment of a single CE activity, the researchers report. Targeted learning approaches providers may find useful include integrating knowledge and competence as well as current performance gaps in pre- and post-tests and increasing opportunities for active discussion. With participant questions exceeding 50 per webinar, e-learning activities have demonstrated unprecedented levels of interaction. As e-learning use expands, even greater interaction is expected, suggesting that when combined with long-term faculty engagement, it holds considerable potential for cultivating lasting competence, according to the researchers.

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