University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
Department of Biostatistics at University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2023 Dec;87(12):1725-1734. doi: 10.1002/jdd.13377. Epub 2023 Sep 21.
E-learning is frequently integrated into dental education, yet little is known on the effectiveness of e-learning in both instilling foundational knowledge and facilitating translation of newly acquired knowledge and skill into clinical application. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of learning modality on acquisition of knowledge and translation to clinical skill using objective feedback from oral anesthesia manikins and subjects' self-reported confidence scores.
This mixed-method study involved first year dental students (n = 52) who volunteered to participate in a learning intervention, simulation exercise, and survey in 2022. Students were randomly assigned to lecture (n = 26) or e-learning (n = 26) cohorts and then participated in the intervention, postintervention assessment, and a simulation to evaluate correct approaches for each dental block and attempts to success.
All subjects scored significantly higher on post-intervention assessment compared to pre-intervention assessment (8.2 vs. 5.9; p < 0.0001) with no significant differences between intervention groups when comparing preintervention and postintervention scores. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the two cohorts when comparing abilities to correctly approach each dental block or attempts to success. Finally, all students reported a significant increase in confidence in most categories following intervention and simulation, with no significant differences between lecture and e-learning cohorts.
Our findings suggest students learning via e-learning are equally capable as those learning via lecture at demonstrating newly acquired knowledge and skill in both assessments and clinical simulations. Results support incorporating supplemental e-learning and oral anesthesia manikin exercises for students learning the anatomy of dental injections.
电子学习经常被整合到牙科教育中，但对于电子学习在灌输基础知识以及促进新知识和技能转化为临床应用方面的效果知之甚少。本研究的目的是通过口腔麻醉模型的客观反馈和受试者自我报告的信心评分，调查学习方式对知识获取和转化为临床技能的影响。
本混合方法研究纳入了 2022 年自愿参加学习干预、模拟练习和调查的一年级牙科学生（n=52）。学生被随机分配到讲座组（n=26）或电子学习组（n=26），然后参加干预、干预后评估和模拟，以评估每个牙科块的正确方法和成功尝试次数。
与干预前评估相比，所有受试者在干预后评估中的得分均显著提高（8.2 分比 5.9 分；p<0.0001），干预组之间在干预前和干预后的评分无显著差异。此外，在比较正确接近每个牙科块的能力或成功尝试次数时，两个队列之间也没有显著差异。最后，所有学生在干预和模拟后报告在大多数类别中的信心显著提高，讲座组和电子学习组之间没有显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，通过电子学习学习的学生在评估和临床模拟中表现出新知识和技能的能力与通过讲座学习的学生一样，这表明支持为学习牙科注射解剖学的学生提供补充电子学习和口腔麻醉模型练习。
