UDENTE (Universal Dental E-Learning) a golden opportunity for dental education

The incorporation of technological advancements in higher education has started to bridge the gap in local, national and global delivery of dental courses. This gap, including the global decrease in senior clinical academics, has influenced the development of new teaching and learning techniques. Institutional virtual learning environments (VLE) and other e-learning resources are now in higher demand. This paper describes how one such innovative solutions has been IVIDENT (International Virtual Dental School), has enabled secure and seamless access to high quality e-content and tools through an innovative, universal flexible learning platform. IVIDENT, now UDENTE (Universal Dental E-learning) has been shown to offer new learning experiences for students of dentistry, but its approach can apply across all educational domains. UDENTE also benefits staff as it allows them to contribute and access resources through peer reviewed publishing processes, which ensure the highest quality in education. UDENTE was developed thanks to a ￡2.3 million grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department of Health. http://www.udente.org. This academically led educational research project involved dental schools in seven countries. An initially scoping of requirements was followed by elaboration of the tools needed. Pilot testing of the tools, systems and learning resources in particular and the impact of the UDENTE in general were carried out. The pilots revealed evidence of positive impact of a space for learning, teaching, development and communication, with tools for planning of electives and administrative support. The results of these initial pilots have been positive and encouraging, describing UDENTE as an accessible, user friendly platform providing tools that otherwise would be difficult to access in a single space. However, attention to supporting faculty to embrace these new learning domains is essential if such technology enhanced learning (TEL) is to be viewed as a golden opportunity in Higher Education.     

Trends, current developments, and concepts in distance learning and E-learning

A glance at the history of distance learning shows that there is a long tradition of using contemporary technical resources for learning and teaching purposes. For some, the holy grail of distance learning is the concept of the industrialization (mass production) of teaching and learning. Although reality has time and again caught up with technological promise, the scope for using new information and communication technologies in teaching has frequently been disregarded. In the future, learning will entail handling organized knowledge resources in demand-specific, organized communities formed for finding solutions to distinct problems and generating new knowledge about learning processes within the problem solving process. The development of the potential of "e-learning" (and actually, it bears contemplating whether this term puts too much emphasis on conventional learning organized in temporally-limited courses or similar, to the detriment of intelligent management of knowledge in its own working context) will depend upon the extent to which organizations succeed in promoting the development of a learning and working culture, for example, by incentive systems, team promotion, and free access to knowledge resources. The Masters degree in Organization Studies is presented against this background as an example of teaching using a combination of resources, leading to undreamed of learning success.     

Changing the curriculum and the role of the teacher and the students in the classroom – an analysis of the process of reforming a course in oral microbiology

In 2005, a new curriculum was introduced at the School of Dentistry at the University of Copenhagen. Amongst many changes, the pedagogical concept behind theoretical teaching was changed. The main emphasis was previously on lectures and teacher controlled teaching, but the emphasis has now shifted to a more dialogue‐based teaching style for smaller groups where the students became much more active. Thus, the learning principle was now given the pride of place. The present article focuses on the pedagogical reorganisation of the course in oral microbiology where, based on interviews with students and teachers, an evaluation is made regarding how the changes were implemented and developed. Despite the fact that the students themselves wanted to abandon the lecture‐based teaching style, there was great dissatisfaction with the new dialogue‐based teaching style as the students did not think that it was possible for them to take responsibility for their learning. They would much rather listen to teachers who know the material. Initially, the teachers were very surprised by the negative attitude of the students and had to change the teaching style to more traditional teaching in groups whilst still maintaining the dialogue principle to a certain degree. In this article, the need to enter into a teaching contract between students and teachers prior to introducing new pedagogical principles is discussed.     

Outreach teaching - the Leeds experience: reflections after one year

Clinical experience in Outreach sites has taken place in many dental schools for a number of years. The wider recognition of Outreach as a useful learning environment has prompted many schools to share their experiences. The purpose of this paper is to share the findings of Leeds Dental Institute's experiences after the first year of Outreach learning in a purpose-built Outreach clinic. The learning outcomes for this activity were carefully tailored to the experiences available within this community setting and built as an integrated part of the BChD dental curriculum. The successful introduction of a model of independent but well supported and managed clinical teaching units as part of Leeds Dental Institute has allowed our dental students to access both modern learning and teaching in a community based locality, while retaining access to the conventional centre of teaching and clinical excellence in a dental school and hospital.     

Service quality implications of dental undergraduate outreach teaching for Primary Care Trusts in England, UK

OBJECTIVE: Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) assumed new responsibilities for dentistry in 2005. In dental education it has been suggested that more emphasis is made of primary care outreach schemes. The paper considers the service quality implications of dental outreach teaching for PCTs with particular reference to access and acceptability. RESEARCH DESIGN AND CLINICAL SETTING: A pilot of outreach teaching for Manchester undergraduates in relation to adult dental care began in 2001. Six groups of eight students, working in pairs, spent one day per week in one of three community dental clinics in socially deprived areas. The evaluation of the first year used data from 908 patient treatment summaries, 139 patient questionnaires, and records of patient attendance. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Access and acceptability measured by patients' demographic characteristics, patients' attendance at the clinics; patients' reasons for attendance, use of services and satisfaction with the service. RESULTS: In terms of access, the new service was used by local patients. Their main reasons for attending were convenience, a dental problem, free treatment, lack of access to a dentist, and lay referral. Some 41 percent attended initially because of an emergency, 30 percent said that if they had not attended the clinic they would have gone nowhere or did not know where they would have gone, and 49 percent had not attended a dentist for more than two years. In terms of acceptability most patients were positive about being treated by a student, 96 percent thought the quality of care excellent or good, and the same percentage said they would return to the clinic. The main areas of criticism were waiting times and appointments. CONCLUSIONS: Students can provide an accessible and acceptable local primary care dental service for adult patients in socially deprived areas as part of their undergraduate learning, and in a way that complements the existing services.     

Design of an interactive system for access cavity assessment: A novel feedback tool for preclinical endodontics

Introduction

A software program was developed to provide visual, guided feedback to students for access cavity preparations in preclinical learning. The specific aim of the study was to investigate students' overall experiences with the new learning method and compare their experiences with traditional teaching.

Materials and Methods

A workflow based on freely available software was designed to interactively register three-dimensional models of molars with access cavities, and to metrically compare these to instructor-prepared standard cavities. Third-year students practicing molar endodontics access cavity preparation in the preclinical course were then surveyed. A total of 44/79 students completed self-administered questionnaires prior and after the use of the feedback software to gauge their learning experience.

Results

The results of the post-training questionnaire illustrated that all surveyed students agreed/strongly agreed that the software assisted their learning in access cavity preparation. In addition, 86 and 89%, respectively, of students agreed that the use of the software improved their skills of access cavity preparation and felt more confident about their access cavity preparation skills after using the software package, 3D Dental Align.

Discussion

The presented software solution permitted setting and comparing access cavity preparations by students against a standard access prepared by an instructor. The process of data acquisition and registration was fast and straightforward. Student feedback was very positive and suggested the integration of this type of experiential learning into the preclinical curriculum.

Conclusion

This feasibility study demonstrated the utility of the new technology to assist dental students' access cavity preparation learning.     

An intricate web - designing and authoring a web-based course

The Internet offers a great opportunity to deliver dental education in new ways. However, to achieve the maximum benefit from this medium, it is necessary to understand its strengths and weaknesses and, above all, not to lose sight of the key principle that in education it is the message and not the messenger (the content and not the medium) that should be given priority. After a brief introduction, this paper considers the principles of designing online programmes. It stresses the need for ensuring that students have easy access to the materials that have been designed and then describes 'learning objects' and virtual learning environments (VLEs). It concludes that with some notable exceptions, dental educators have hardly begun to grasp the benefits of web-based teaching and learning.     

Teaching and learning: an update for the orthodontist

Developments in teaching and learning have implications for every orthodontist. This paper describes some of the theories of teaching and learning that have led to a quiet revolution in higher education. Developments have included the incorporation of self-directed and problem-based learning concepts, together with a more active and interactive role for the learner. The importance of these changes for orthodontic education is discussed.     

Implementation of the virtual learning environment into a UK orthodontic training programme: the postgraduate and lecturer perspective

The virtual learning environment (VLE) was formally introduced into the orthodontic postgraduate teaching programme at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute in October 2006 with the main role to support the existing didactic teaching. The aim of this study was to establish the programme co-ordinator, lecturer and postgraduate perspective on the introduction of the VLE as an adjunct to other teaching methods. All participants were interviewed utilising open-ended questions to ascertain their response. The interviews were semi-structured and were continued until no new information was elicited. The interviews suggested that the programme co-ordinator, lecturers and the majority of the postgraduates were confident that the VLE could produce a better learning experience. The VLE has a number of advantages and disadvantages, however, there is great potential for the VLE to encourage a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. Moves have been made to align aspects, such as assessment, with the VLE and the rest of the curriculum.     

A study into the effectiveness of a text-based computer-assisted learning program in comparison with seminar teaching of orthodontics

Computer-assisted learning (CAL) is a relatively new method of teaching. Few evaluations have been made which compare the new CAL methods with conventional teaching. This study used a text-based CAL package designed to teach orthodontic assessment and basic principles of treatment planning. It assessed the knowledge gain of 49 dental undergraduate students when taught orthodontic assessment and treatment planning by either CAL or conventional tutorial. Both groups made significant gains in knowledge. However, students who were taught by the conventional tutorial made a significantly greater gain than those taught by CAL.     

Education problems and Web-based teaching: how it impacts dental educators?

This article looks at six problems that vex educators and how web-based teaching might help solve them. These problems include: (1) limited access to educational content, (2) need for asynchronous access to educational content, (3) depth and diversity of educational content, (4) training in complex problem solving, (5) promotion of lifelong learning behaviors and (6) achieving excellence in education. The advantages and disadvantage of web-based educational content for each problem are discussed. The article suggests that when a poorly organized course with inaccurate and irrelevant content is placed online, it solves no problems. However some of the above issues can be partially or fully solved by hosting well-constructed teaching modules on the web. This article also reviews the literature investigating the efficacy of off-site education as compared to that provided on-site. The conclusion of this review is that teleconference-based and web-based delivery of educational content can be as effective as traditional classroom-based teaching assuming the technologic problems sometimes associated with delivering teaching content to off-site locations do not interfere in the learning process. A suggested hierarchy for rating and comparing e-learning concepts and methods is presented for consideration.     

Reviews and Abstracts

Abstract

Developments in teaching and learning have implications for every orthodontist. This paper describes some of the theories of teaching and learning that have led to a quiet revolution in higher education. Developments have included the incorporation of self-directed and problem-based learning concepts, together with a more active and interactive role for the learner. The importance of these changes for orthodontic education is discussed.     

Student perceptions of an online dental terminology course

Online learning is becoming a recognized method for delivering educational content throughout institutions of higher education. Few studies have been performed regarding online learning in dentistry or dental hygiene. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe and analyze the experiences of thirteen students enrolled in an online dental terminology course to determine their satisfaction level. The overall perceptions of online learning were positive, and although some frustrations were apparent, the majority of students stated that they learned a great deal, found the course valuable, and were now familiar with the terminology. Students commented on the convenience of taking the course at a time that fit their schedule and a place that they did not have to commute to attend. Technical issues and student isolation seemed to be the primary drawbacks to online learning. Some students missed the interaction that exists in a regular classroom. Students strongly suggested that, to be successful in online education, one had to be a self-directed learner. In addition, visual learners were more apt than audio learners to appreciate online learning. The results of this study suggest that online learning was a valuable method for teaching dental terminology and is particularly beneficial for students with no other alternative methods for gaining access to the courses due to geographical location. Where appropriate, online courses should be considered an option for providing distance education in dental hygiene programs.     

New leaders in dentistry: dental students

Leadership opportunities for dental students have opened dramatically in recent decades because of the humanistic approach to education that shares responsibility for learning between students and faculty and that values mutual respect. Technology has also had an effect because it creates instant access and global communities. This new student leadership is most apparent in the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), which recently developed a White Paper on ethics, assisted in the establishment of Student Professionalism and Ethics Clubs at schools, and is developing a policy on unsupervised dental care. Students are also demonstrating leadership in research; in dual degrees that enhance teaching and policy; and in community service and outreach.     

Effectiveness of web-based teaching modules: test-enhanced learning in dental education

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of self-tests as a component of web-based self-instruction in predoctoral orthodontics and pediatric dentistry. To this end, the usage patterns of online teaching modules and self-tests by students enrolled in three courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry were monitored and correlated to final exam grade and course average. We recorded the frequency of access to thirty relevant teaching modules and twenty-nine relevant self-tests for 157 second- and third-year D.D.S. students during the course of our data collection. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between frequency of accessing self-tests and course performance in one course that was totally based on self-instruction with seminars and multiple-choice examination (Level IV): Spearman correlation between frequency of self-test access and final exam grade, rho=0.23, p=0.044; correlation between frequency of self-test access and course average: rho=0.39, p=0.0004. In the other two courses we monitored, which included content beyond self-instruction with self-tests, the correlations were positive but not statistically significant. The students' use of online learning resources varied significantly from one course (Level I) to the next (Level II): Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank tests, S=-515.5, p=.0057 and S=1086, p<0.0001. The data from this study suggest that increased use of web-based self-tests may be correlated with more effective learning in predoctoral dental education by virtue of the testing effect and that dental students' usage of resources for learning changes significantly over the course of their education.     

Development and implementation of a comprehensive faculty development program in PBL core skills

Large curricular changes associated with changes in teaching and learning methods should be accompanied by faculty development programs linked to the new pedagogy. This article describes a framework for the development and implementation of a program designed to assist faculty with the transition of the dental curriculum to a problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy. A faculty committee created a PBL core skills program based on experiential, developmentally appropriate approaches that resulted in constructive and social learning opportunities for the faculty participants. Nearly 70 percent of faculty members have participated in the facilitation preparation workshops and contributed to the D.D.S. curriculum as small-group, inquiry-based learning facilitators. Faculty development programs geared toward acquisition of specific teaching skills and based on adult learning principles can be devised locally and result in increased participation in a new curriculum.     

循证医学联合CBL教学法在牙周病实习教学的应用

将循证医学与CBL教学法有机地结合后应用于口腔牙周病临床实习教学,实践证明应用循证医学联合CBL教学法有助于激发学生的学习兴趣和自主学习积极性,可培养学生不断更新知识信息的终身学习能力,加强学生发现问题和分析解决问题的能力,也有助于加强学生临床思维能力的培养,研究证实取得了良好的教学效果,值得在牙周病实习教学实践中进一步推广应用。     

Computer-assisted learning (CAL) in undergraduate clinical dentistry: a review.

OBJECTIVE: To review the effectiveness of computer-assisted learning (CAL) in undergraduate clinical dentistry. METHODS: A review of dental and related medical literature was conducted using a selective MEDLINE search and by manual search. RESULTS: An attempt was made to evaluate the results of computer-based teaching methods in clinical dentistry, and the future. Analysis of several controlled studies showed equivocal learning improvements for CAL when compared with other teaching methods in clinical dentistry. However, CAL technology and appreciation of the standards required for effective learning programmes have changed considerably since these early studies were published. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable potential for effective computer-based education in undergraduate clinical dental programmes, and the Internet can provide better access to such material. However, using newer technologies, further controlled studies of the learning effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of CAL in clinical dentistry are required.     

Educational science, 'the hardest science of all'

Educational research not only showed that student characteristics are of major importance for study success, but also that education does make a difference. Essentially, teaching is about stimulating students to invest time in learning and to use that time as effectively as possible. Assessment, goal-orientated work, and feedback have a major effect. The teacher is the key figure. With the aim to better understand teaching and learning, educational researchers usefindingsfrom other disciplines more and more often. A pitfall is to apply the findings of educational research without taking into consideration the context and the specific characteristics of students and teachers. Because of the large number offactors that influence the results ofeducation, educational science is referred as 'the hardest science of all'.     

Making the most of teaching at the chairside

This study examines the chairside as an opportunity for teaching and learning. It sets out to understand how students learn in the dental clinic so that they can better be supported in their clinical learning. The study draws on current theories of learning to establish a rationale for effective chairside teaching. Current theories highlight the active role of learners in ‘constructing’ their own knowledge of a field, and emphasise the importance of active learning and reflection in this process. The study is practical in nature. It weaves evidence from empirical studies of medical and dental clinical teaching, as well as ‘best practice tips’ from the literature, with theory to suggest a strategy for effective teaching in the clinical context. The study concludes with a caveat, warning that effective clinical teaching requires an investment in time.