Two decades of dixon: The question(s) of evaluating continuing education in the health professions

In this article, we provide a brief overview of the evaluation movement in continuing health professional education, beginning with Dixon's 1978 article on evaluation criteria and strategies. We define evaluation, discuss the forces driving the evaluation movement, and present the results of a search of the continuing education literature. Examples of program evaluations drawn from the literature illustrate Dixon's four types of evaluation, as well as some of the qualitative and quantitative tools used in evaluation, particularly the role of the randomized controlled trial. We conclude with a discussion of the evaluation movement's strengths and weaknesses, and its possible future directions.