ABSTRACT
Health and medical education for prospective doctors usually takes place in medical colleges and schools, following a four-stage learning process: learning from lectures and text books, demonstration of skills by teachers, performance of skills under the supervision of the teacher, and further practice of the skills on patients. The use of open and distance learning for practising doctors, whilst practised elsewhere in the world (see the Open University Joint Centre for Research in Medicine <https://iet.open.ac.uk/JCM/homepage.htm>;) is innovative in India and requires sensitivity in its implementation and in learner support. This chapter describes these aspects in national and institutional contexts, and analyses the impact of such teaching and learning in continuing medical education in a decentralized and flexible framework. Our focus is a Postgraduate Diploma in Maternal and Child Health, for practising doctors working especially in rural areas, offered by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India.
