Dental students’ education in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: from reality to virtuality: lessons to be learnt. (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a major public health challenge for many countries around the world. The global lockdown of educational institutions is going to cause major disruption to students’ learning and cancellation of their yearly assessments. Dental students are particularly at risk, due to the possibility of aerosols produced in many dental procedures that were suggested as a way of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Shifting to online learning is needed in this era. OBJECTIVE This article aims to review the online learning experience, the effectiveness of tele-dentistry and the importance of implementing dental virtual simulation in preclinical and clinical courses during pandemics. Some suggestions are also provided to widen communication and creativity in the education system. The limitations of online learning and suggested solutions are also discussed. METHODS Two independent investigators conducted an electronic comprehensive search of PubMed/MEDLINE for articles published between 2000 and 2020, using the following search terms: “online education”; “Tele-dentistry”; “Education during pandemics”; “Virtual dentistry”; “COVID-19 reshaping education”; and “Dental E-learning.” Studies were selected and classified as included or excluded based on the title and abstract of the articles by the 2 researchers, working independently. Articles included were published in English, related to dentistry and online education. Articles excluded were not published in English or related to conventional education. It was not possible to analyze included articles, therefore we decided to do narrative review only. Authors’ points of view and suggestions were also added to shed light on the online learning experience and understand its quality and effectiveness during pandemics. RESULTS : from 150 articles reviewed, only 30 articles were found to qualify for inclusion. All included articles discussed online education based on experience of authors and provided some suggestions so that online learning experience becomes more effective. All included articles found that online education is a useful tool to be invested at times of pandemics and that it needs to be empowered and improved by schools and universities. CONCLUSIONS Being successful in riding the wave will take dental learning and teaching into a new era. In the future, every dean and faculty member will understand that online education is not only a potential source for new revenue. Instead, online education will be recognized as an essential core to every educational plan for institutional resilience and academic continuity. CLINICALTRIAL None

Website Builder as an Assistive Technology Tool for Reflection, Collaboration and Skills Development in Learning ESP

“…Website Builders in a Smart Educational Environment Learning in a smart educational environment encompasses learning activities with the assistance of technology as an alternative to the traditional approach, or refers to integration of online learning into the formal education as blended learning or e-learning (Yang, 2009;Alhabshneh et al, 2020;Ennis et al, 2021).…”

“…In a smart education environment, assistive technology tools enable learners to go beyond absorbing knowledge from textbooks. Researchers have asserted that it is imperative to change the teaching method to a more proactive one with the assistance of IT, such as online learning, or to integrate new methods into the traditional one, such as blended learning (Alhabshneh et al, 2020;Ennis et al, 2021;McLaughlin, 2014). Smart education demands the cultivation of skills development, reflection and meaningful collaboration.…”