Continuing dental education on the World Wide Web.

Continuing dental education (CDE) courses delivered on the World Wide Web (Web CDE) offer numerous advantages over traditional CDE; however, two major issues--location of suitable courses and course quality--need resolution. Locating high-quality courses is difficult due to the lack of the standardized metadata that allows search engines to match courses to practitioners' needs. Web directories created by professional organizations are beginning to show promise, but require further development. Search engines and Web directories are discussed and improvements currently underway summarized. Course quality remains a highly significant concern. A national effort to create Web CDE course quality standards is underway that includes proposed standards. These proposed standards are summarized and used to comment on the current state of Web CDE courses. Examples are given when possible. Three emerging Web CDE technologies and a look to the future of Web CDE are discussed.

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