ESCRS iLearn is helping doctors to develop a year-round education plan

    IN an age when ophthalmologists have so many demands for their services, it can be difficult to find time to spend on education. Setting aside a weekend or two each year to attend congresses and meetings is a good way to “check in” on your knowledge, see what everyone else is doing and find out about what is coming in the future – but most would agree, if they had more time, they would like to do more throughout the year. ESCRS iLearn – the ESCRS’s online, interactive education platform – is here to help. In the past six years, the site has developed to offer 22 courses, covering visual optics, cataract surgery, refractive surgery and cornea, from basic to advanced levels. In that time, the online world has changed nearly as much as the ophthalmic world: in particular the advent of Android and iOS devices, and the growth in their popularity – to a point where they are almost taking over from the traditional PC or laptop. Therefore, every two years, ESCRS iLearn is updated to ensure the content being delivered is the most recent, and is available to as many members as possible, whether on PC, Mac, laptop, MacBooks, iPads or Android tablets. Courses are also sent for CME accreditation, so the time you spend is rewarded with European CME Credits (details of CME credits available are based on each course). All you need is 20 minutes and Wi-Fi. The approach in developing ESCRS iLearn courses is to engage learners as much as possible. Rather than watch a video or read text, learners will be asked questions about the content they are seeing – it may be a video, a disease process, a surgical technique or some theoretical aspect of these. This helps to maintain interest and concentration when working with complex concepts. Courses are divided into modules, which in turn are divided into topics. This helps to break up the content into more manageable “bite-sized” chunks, which you can take any time that suits you. As you progress through a course, several quizzes and assessments act as checkpoints to help you identify how well you are understanding the content. Being asked questions also helps to reinforce the knowledge you are learning. The content itself has also been designed to be easy to get through – ESCRS iLearn courses use high-impact illustrations, animations and surgical videos to help you better understand the concepts being discussed. ESCRS iLearn is free for members, and can be accessed at http://elearning.escrs.org. Links are available from the ESCRS website and the ESCRS Education Portal.