Effectiveness of Computer‐Aided Removable Partial Denture Design

MorphoDent, a computer-assisted learning program designed to teach the anatomy of the adult dentition, was introduced into the curriculum of dentistry at the University of Saarland in Homburg, Germany. Thirty-six second-year students of the School of Dentistry were introduced to morphoDent alongside the traditional lectures of dental anatomy. Questionnaires that evaluated the students' perceptions of virtual learning as well as aspects of the functionality of the program educational objectives were developed and distributed to the students. Online tests were performed and compared with a traditional examination. All questionnaires were returned. A wide variety of aspects dealing the pedagogic implications of e-learning were evaluated by the students, with the overall result being that students are aware of the needed hardware and technical skills and expect the quality of their studies to improve by implementation of e-learning. All sophomores except one felt that morphoDent had helped them in learning dental morphology and reported enjoying the virtual anatomical examination. One-third reported technical dificulties in operating the program. The average exam score was 2.53 (SD: 0.66) for the traditional and 2.23 (SD: 0.59) for the online dental anatomy test. Students expressed their positive attitude towards e-learning in general and indicated that the use of photorealistic 3D models of human teeth supported the process of individual learning of dental anatomy. The online test could be rated as a good option for students' self-performance rating.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing and Evaluating MorphoDent, a Web‐Based Learning Program in Dental Morphology

Mitov

Dillschneider

Abed

et al. 2010

“…Additional examples are listed in the reference section. [32][33][34][35][36][37][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]…”

Section: Objectivist Comparison-based Evaluation Of a Virtual Realitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Educational Software

Schleyer

Johnson

2003

Self Cite

Evaluation is an important component of developing educational software. Ideally, such evaluation quantifies and qualifies the effects of a new educational intervention on the learning process and outcomes. Conducting meaningful and rigorous educational evaluation is difficult, however. Challenges include defining and measuring educational outcomes, accounting for media effects, coping with practical problems in designing studies, and asking the right research questions. Practical considerations that make the design of evaluation studies difficult include confounding, potentially small effect sizes, contamination effects, and ethics. Two distinct approaches to evaluation are objectivist and subjectivist. These two complement each other in describing the whole range of effects a new educational program can have. Objectivist demonstration studies should be preceded by measurement studies that assess the reliability and validity of the evaluation instrument(s) used. Many evaluation studies compare the performance of learners who are exposed to either the new program or a more traditional approach. However, this method is problematic because test or exam performance is often a weak indicator of competence and may fail to capture important nuances in outcomes. Subjectivist studies are more qualitative in nature and may provide insights complementary to those gained with objectivist studies. Several published examples are used in this article to illustrate different evaluation methods. Readers are encouraged to contemplate a wide range of evaluation study designs and explore increasingly complex questions when evaluating educational software.Dr. Schleyer is Associate Professor and

“…Previous studies on these tools as preclinical teaching aids have reported favorable results in terms of both student attitudes and learning outcomes. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Video can be especially beneficial if students have the opportunity to refer back to the material repeatedly. 1 Although instructional videos have been developed in dentistry, to our knowledge, none of these have involved the demonstration of an all-ceramic tooth preparation and/or provisional crown fabrication.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Exposure to a Procedural Video Enhance Preclinical Dental Student Performance in Fixed Prosthodontics?

Aragon

Zibrowski

2008

To try to alleviate the issue of dental students having an inadequate field of view during live demonstrations of fixed prosthodontic preparations, an instructional video depicting the step-by-step procedures involved in an all-ceramic tooth preparation and provisional crown fabrication (practical exam 1, PE1) was created. Fifty-five second-year dental students were given a personal copy of the video after a lecture and an in-class viewing of the material. Throughout the course, students watched live demonstrations of tooth preparations and then practiced individually on mannequins. The scores achieved by the students on three practical exams (PE1, PE2, and PE3) were compared to those recorded by a class one year prior to the development of the video. The students exposed to the video performed significantly better on PE1 in comparison to the previous year's class, as well as compared to their own performance on the other two practical exams that had no supplementary teaching aids. A significant, moderate-level correlation was detected between exposure to the video and PE1. Ninety-six percent of the students reported on their end-of-year evaluation that the video helped them to prepare for PE1.