Recent Movement on Education and Training in Health Informatics

ing the skills of their area of expertise. If students are health professionals, they may need courses to strengthen their IT skills, and if students are IT professionals, they may need courses that give them a better understanding of clinical settings and healthcare systems. The domain of health informatics is usually interdisciplinary with a focus on the integration of areas, such as health, healthcare system, management, computing, and technology. Such wider expectations have difficult implications for the question of what needs to be taught to future health informatics professionals. In this context, it is good to hear that the IMIA Education Task Force has outlined the key competencies necessary for stand-alone health informatics courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels as well as embedded courses as a track to complement other aspects of healthcare training. In terms of instructional methods and media, technologyaided instruction has been emerging, and ITs have been driving significant change throughout academia. As the rapid evolution of IT alters the constraints of space and time and reshapes the way students communicate, learn, and think, it is fundamentally changing the relationship between students and knowledge. Despite the fact that distance online learning in higher education is on the rise, online learning has been criticized by feelings of learner isolation and alienation, lack of participant interaction, and high dropout rates. However, along the rise of Web 2.0, SNSs have been viewed as tools that enable the use of participatory pedagogies able to address the problems of distance education. SNSs have gained widespread interest for their potential to facilitate interaction, communication, learner participation, and collaboration and have recently been featured in Recent Movement on Education and Training in Health Informatics