Abstract
Background The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oslo started producing electronic learning resources in 1993. Funding for new projects is made available every year. The Section for E-Learning at the Faculty of Medicine has 6 associates. The advancements in information technology makes e-learning resources outdated technologically, long time before the subject they are supposed to teach reach new scientific advancements. This paper takes on the task of identifying the challenges that come with keeping electronic resources updated. It should also identify the resources that need updating. It is also supposed to give an introduction to which of the new criteria in the curriculum, concerning clinical examination and practical skills that have an e-course at the University of Oslo which explains them. Method The resources at the URL elæringhelse.no have been tested with intent of discovering which resources that are compatible on handheld devices. Link collections have been checked to see whether the links are pointing to resources intended. The list of practical skills and the draft of the list for clinical examinations have been cross checked with the e-courses at elæringhelse.no in order to identify which skills and examinations that lack e-courses explaining them Results: Examination of compatibility showed that only 18 out of 33 e-courses worked seamlessly on 7 out of 7 platforms. One e-course had resources that didn’t work properly on any platform, while another course showed low-resolution video that worked seamlessly on 1 out of 7 platforms. Flash animation didn’t work on any handheld devices. 43 out of 120 clinical examinations and 58 out of 96 practical skills didn’t have any e-learning resources explaining them Discussion: The use of outdated technology and formats ruin the experience when using e-learning resources. Users of e-learning resources are increasingly accessing these from handheld devices. Users on handheld devices should in the future have a seamless experience when using e-learning resources. The development of new e-resources should either be customized to Norwegian health care, and be in Norwegian, or it could be with such high quality, technologically and content wise, that it competes with resources made by other universities.