Journal of dental education
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The purpose of this report is to describe the rationale and subsequent transition of a pharmacology course for dental students from a traditional face-to-face lecture format to online delivery using a course management system (CMS). A dental school faculty member with dental and pharmacology degrees and a Ph. D. was asked to serve as course director and to develop and implement a nontraditional course using the Blackboard CMS technology, which houses asynchronous course content materials, study guides, and online resource materials. ⋯ In a comparison of overall course grades from the previous year, student performance in this course was much stronger. As a result of student feedback seeking more interaction with the course director, it was determined that the next time the course is offered there will be additional opportunities for greater face-to-face time with the instructor. Ongoing evaluation will be important as new teaching technologies emerge and are adopted for teaching and learning.
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The American Dental Education Association's Admissions Committee Workshop (ADEA ACW) was designed to challenge dental school administrators and admissions committee members to review their current admissions practices and to explore ways to attract a more diverse student body. Presented at the invitation of dental schools, this half-day interactive workshop provides opportunities for a dental school's administrators, staff, and admissions committee members to learn about the value of diversity in the educational environment and how to implement holistic admissions practices that take into consideration the experiences, attributes, and metrics of candidates for admission. This report explores the rationale for the development of the ADEA ACW, discusses lessons learned from presentation of the workshop at more than twenty-seven U. S. dental schools, and tracks enrollment trends of underrepresented minority students in dental schools where the workshop has been presented.
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Virtual reality force feedback simulators provide a haptic (sense of touch) feedback through the device being held by the user. The simulator's goal is to provide a learning experience resembling reality. A newly developed haptic simulator (IDEA Dental, Las Vegas, NV, USA) was assessed in this study. ⋯ The results show that experienced dental faculty members as well as advanced dental students found that the simulator could provide significant potential benefits in the teaching and self-learning of manual dental skills. Development of the simulator's tactile sensation is needed to attune it to genuine sensation. Further studies relating to aspects of the simulator's structure and its predictive validity, its scoring system, and the nature of the performed tasks should be conducted.
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Comparative Study
Evaluation of stress in final-year Saudi dental students using salivary cortisol as a biomarker.
The aims of this study were to identify the perceived sources of stress in final-year dental students studying in a private dental school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using a modified dental environmental stress (DES) scale and to correlate these findings, at various times in the semester, with the level of acute stress measured with salivary cortisol as a biomarker. A total of forty final-year students were administered a modified DES questionnaire consisting of twenty-five questions to determine the perceived causes of stress. ⋯ Baseline cortisol levels were significantly lower than the cortisol levels in the clinic, and both these values were significantly lower than the salivary cortisol levels before the examination (p<0.001). Comparison of cortisol levels to the perceived sources of stress and demographic data collected showed that certain discrepancies may exist between the perceived and actual stress felt by dental students at different times in the academic semester.