Technology for learning: how it has changed education

As a result of the digital revolution we have experienced in the last 25 years, a range of new teaching and learning formats is available, from e-modules, sophisticated simulations and serious games, to online collaborative learning. In this special issue, we cover several of these promising new formats of technology-enhanced learning (or e-learning or online learning), referring to the use of internet technologies to deliver a broad range of solutions that enhance knowledge and performance [1, 2]. For health care and medical education, with its growing demands on physicians competencies and decreasing supply of hospital-based patients [3], flexible, scalable and engaging learning opportunities are essential to meet the new demands. Traditional models of classroom-based learning as dominant training model no longer meet the current needs of health care institutions [4]. The role of technologyenhanced learning in health education has grown rapidly; over 90 % of medical schools in the USA and Canada use online course materials for medical education [5]. Although some people state that because of the technological change ‘today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach’ [6, p. 1], there is little evidence that students enter university with demands for new technologies that teachers cannot meet [7]. Selection and use of formats (such as e-modules or simulations) in technology-enhanced learning should be based on informed choices of effectiveness and costs, with instructional objectives being in the lead.