Bioethics Casebook 2.0: Using Web-Based Design and Tools to Promote Ethical Reflection and Practice in Health Care

The idea of the Internet as Gutenberg 2.0-a true revolution in disseminating information-is now a routine part of how bioethics education works. The Internet has become indispensable as a channel for sharing teaching materials and connecting learners with a central platform (such as a professional society's website or a course page on a university's web portal) that houses materials to support an online or hybrid curriculum or a traditional course. A newer idea in bioethics education reflects developments in web-based medical education more broadly and draws on design principles developed for the Internet. This approach to online bioethics education requires thinking about web-based learning as an engaging, potentially immersive experience, about learners' expectations concerning web-based learning, and about differences between self-directed learning and teaching to support group learning. In clinician education in bioethics, the interrelated goals of ethical reflection and practice for professionals and of continuous quality improvement in health care are supported by a focus on real-world challenges and by encouraging the habits of self-directed learning. In this paper, we describe how an international, interdisciplinary team used a web-based framework to develop a health care ethics casebook whose content, design, and pedagogy were tailored to the needs and expectations of health care professionals and other audiences in Singapore; we also explain how they used this framework to make the casebook accessible nationwide and to support cross-cultural learning.