Science literacy is held up to be crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more informed individual and collective decision-making. The ongoing COVID pandemic has illustrated gaps and pitfalls in past and present performance of the fields of both science and health literacies.
NIDA has been amongst the first to undertake research in the impact assessment (IA) of science literacy; from 2017 - 2020 facilitating a research study providing a synthesis of what is already known about the impact of a wide range of delivery approaches and methods, and preparing an open online toolkit for impact evaluation. The most recent request is to develop a project in the field of e-learning in science and health literacies.
There is substantial evidence that e-learning can improve access to education for people from various backgrounds and situations by offering an alternative method, however, its effectiveness varies from context to context and has also been shown to make considerable demands on technical issues, on costs related to technology, users' motivation and digital literacy. The relevance of all these factors has been intensified during the COVID pandemic. A focus is needed on practical models that educators can use to realize the full potential of e-learning, less on the long list of ever-evolving technologies and more of an understanding of these technologies from an educational perspective.