Distance learning by the world wide web for medical dosimetrists

The critical shortage of medical dosimetrists will require innovative methods to rapidly and adequately educate new personnel rapidly using limited resources. Distance learning through a world wide web site offers the opportunity for resources to be pooled to create a comprehensive teaching tool that can be used at multiple sites by many mentors. Web based distance learning has the capability to provide uniform training to every student at each site. Commercially available software provides authoring tools that can be used by mentors to create didactic lectures through the web. Examination tools in the software allow control of the pool of questions used in examinations and the automation of performance scoring. A prototype web site has been constructed for training medical dosimetrists. The example demonstrates the training techniques that can be implemented and the feasibility of a national dosimetrist education program.