The distance learning, sometimes called e-learning, is a formalised teaching and learning system specifically designed to be carried out remotely by using electronic communication. Because distance learning is less expensive to support and is not constrained by geographic considerations, it offers opportunities in situations where traditional education has difficulty in operating. Doctors with scheduling or distance problems can benefit, because distance education can be more flexible in terms of time and can be delivered virtually anywhere.
The Vice Chancellor Professor Mashhoor Alam Shah expressed in a meeting with the members of the faculty that the vision of this programme is to provide state of the art family health care system in the rural areas of Sindh. There should also be a well designed, cost effective, sustainable and implementable system of medical education based on distance learning for doctors and health care workers to satisfy their needs of continued upgrading the knowledge and skills in essential medical care for the community.
The purpose of "e-Family Health Care Certificate Course" is to teach and train the doctors working in the rural areas to improve quality of care being provided by them to the communities who are not able to access costly and distant urban facilities. He added that the distance learning programme can be as effective as the traditional format when the methods are appropriate to the teaching tasks, there is student-teacher interaction, and the teachers provide students with appropriate and timely feedback.