A Blended Learning Course Taught to Different Groups of Learners in a Dental School: Follow‐Up Evaluation

Abstract

This article reports the results of a follow-up study conducted to investigate students' perceptions about a blended learning health informatics course that combined online and traditional classroom instruction. The course is taught to five different groups of students at the School of Clinical Dentistry of the University of Sheffield each academic year: first-, third-, and fourthyear dental students, dental hygiene and therapy students, and postgraduate dental students. The goal of the study was to determine the impact of the modifications made to the course after the first year of implementation. To accomplish this goal, students' perceptions of this blended learning course were compared after the first and second implementations. The methodology used for this study was action research. The data were collected using three processes: questionnaires were used to collect contextual data from the students taking the course; a student-led, nominal group technique was used to collect group data from the participants; and a non-participant observer technique was used to record the context in which certain group and individual behaviors occurred. Depending on group assignment, between 41.5 and 91.5 percent of students believed that the blended-learning course had added to their skills. The online learning environment was perceived as a useful resource by 75 percent of students in four of the five student groups, but only 45 percent of the fourth-year dental students indicated it was a useful resource. The perceived lack of sufficient online support material was one of the main concerns of the students at the nominal group evaluation sessions. The non-participant observer technique identified different engagement levels among the student groups. Discernible differences were identified, with improvement in some areas and a decline in others compared to a previous evaluation. The change in the delivery method influenced the students' comprehension of the material negatively and the learning environment positively, but did not influence online collaboration among students.

Avaliação e desenvolvimento de ambiente virtual de aprendizagem no ensino da disciplina de Diagnóstico Oral por meio do blended learning

“…Nesse contexto, surge o B-Learning, que é a mais atual abordagem em educação virtual, que vai combinar o uso do ensino a distância online com o ensino presencial em sala de aula, ofertando grande vantagem e melhorando o potencial do ensino. Existem vários tipos de B-Learning, e estes vão depender do equilíbrio das abordagens presenciais e à distância, como por exemplo, o material didático de apoio online poder ser entregue antes ou depois do aluno participar das aulas presenciais 14 . Uma consequência do B-Learning é que as atividades passam a se posicionar em espectros contínuos no espaço real/virtual, no tempo síncrono/ assíncrono, e na interatividade passivo/ interativo 22 .…”

“…Os resultados obtidos no presente estudo apontam que a participação dos alunos no AVA favoreceu o processo de aprendizagem. Todos os 13 voluntários consideraram que as imagens existentes contribuíram na sua aprendizagem, em adição aos estudantes que consideraram que a disposição do conteúdo facilitou o processo de ensino-aprendizagem, e que o formato dos materiais disponibilizados AVA-DO estimulou a aprendizagem, corroborando os resultados obtidos no trabalho de Pahinis et al 14 no qual a maioria dos estudantes manifestaram satisfação fizeram satisfeitos com o curso online proposto. O estudo de Cruz et al 24 também encontrou alto nível de satisfação dos estudantes com relação à experiência de aprender por meio da EaD via plataforma Moodle.…”

“…Assim, o estudante de odontologia necessita correlacionar os conhecimentos científicos adquiridos em disciplinas básicas à vivência clínica, para que possa entender o processo de construção do diagnóstico e desta maneira aprender a indicar e a planejar o melhor tratamento, melhorando o prognóstico e a qualidade de vida do paciente. Por isso, para tornar possível o EaD na Odontologia pode-se implementar o blended learning (B-leerning), aprendizado híbrido, ou seja, a educação presencial combinada com material de apoio complementar 14 .…”

Analysis of student satisfaction regarding the use of online technologies and resources in Forensic Dentistry

“…Several studies have reported the use of technology, particularly of the VLE, in the teaching of several disciplines of dentistry 1,3,5,[11][12][13] . However, few studies refer to the use of technology in the teaching of forensic dentistry 12 .…”

Students’ Perceptions of Dental Anatomy Course at the University of Jordan = رأي الطلاب في مادة تشريح الأسنان العملي في الجامعة الأردنية

“…Virtual reality (5) , and haptic technologies (10) . A combination of both online learning with traditional classroom-based learning was found most useful (11) .…”