Journal of dental education
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Comparative Study
Utilization of blended learning to teach preclinical endodontics.
Blended learning (BL) is the integration of classroom learning with an online environment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether dental students who experienced BL in a preclinical endodontic course demonstrated better manual skills, conceptual knowledge, and learning experience compared to those experiencing traditional learning. All eighty-one students (100 percent) in a preclinical endodontics course agreed to participate and were assigned to either the traditional or BL group. ⋯ The BL group scored better than the traditional group on the manual skills exercise at a statistically significant level (p=0.0067). There were no differences in the post-intervention quiz scores between the two groups, and the students' opinions were positive regarding BL. With BL, the students were able to learn and demonstrate dental skills at a high level.
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As part of the Basic Science Survey Series for Dentistry, members of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Physiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics Section surveyed directors of physiology courses in North American dental schools. The survey was designed to assess, among other things, faculty affiliation and experience of course directors, teaching methods, general course content and emphasis, extent of interdisciplinary (shared) instruction, and impact of recent curricular changes. ⋯ The findings suggest the following: substantial variation exists in instructional hours, faculty affiliation, class size, and interdisciplinary nature of physiology courses; physiology course content emphasis is similar between schools; student contact hours in physiology, which have remained relatively stable in the past fifteen years, are starting to be reduced; recent curricular changes have often been directed towards enhancing the integrative and clinically relevant aspects of physiology instruction; and a trend toward innovative content delivery, such as use of computer-assisted instruction, is evident. Data from this study may be useful to physiology course directors, curriculum committees, and other dental educators with an interest in integrative and interprofessional education.
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Since social media sites began to appear in the 1990s, their popularity has increased dramatically, especially among younger individuals. With this widespread use of social media, institutions of higher education are finding the need to implement social media policies. The purpose of this study was to gather information from accredited U. ⋯ Schools that had an institutional social media policy were more likely to have a social media policy in the dental school (p=0.01), and dental schools were more likely to have a policy if the academic dean had been in the position less than five years (p=0.01). All twenty-three responding dental schools have official social media pages. Dental educators and administrators may want to look for opportunities to raise awareness of social media professionalism in their dental schools.
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Comparative Study
Comparing face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous learning: postgraduate dental resident preferences.
The Department of Dental Medicine of Lutheran Medical Center has developed an asynchronous online curriculum consisting of prerecorded PowerPoint presentations with audio explanations. The focus of this study was to evaluate if the new asynchronous format satisfied the educational needs of the residents compared to traditional lecture (face-to-face) and synchronous (distance learning) formats. Lectures were delivered to 219 dental residents employing face-to-face and synchronous formats, as well as the new asynchronous format; 169 (77 percent) participated in the study. ⋯ The residents also rated the quality of student-instructor and student-student interactions in the synchronous and asynchronous formats significantly higher after taking the lecture series than they did before taking it. However, they rated the face-to-face format as significantly more conducive to student-instructor and student-student interaction. While the study found technology had a major impact on the efficacy of this curricular model, the results suggest that the asynchronous format can be an effective way to teach a postgraduate course.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Tobacco cessation treatment education for dental students using standardized patients.
The use of standardized patients (SPs) shows promise in tobacco cessation treatment (TCT) training by providing a simulated clinical environment for dental students to practice counseling skills with individuals trained to portray patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge between dental students who received a lecture and practice sessions with SPs and those who received a lecture only. Dental students in an introductory clinical course at one dental school were invited to participate in the study by completing a pre and post questionnaire. ⋯ Of ninety-eight students who attended the lecture and were invited to participate in the study, a total of ninety-four from the two groups (96 percent) provided two linkable questionnaires for analysis. In the results, training with lecture and SPs increased the students' understanding of barriers, subjective norms, perceived skills, self-efficacy, and intentions to provide TCT more than those in the lecture only; however, it did not significantly increase their attitudes and knowledge. These findings suggest that using SPs is a valuable educational method to promote the provision of TCT by dental students and graduates.