Effects of Distance-Learning Strategies in Dental Fixed Prosthodontics Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study on Preclinical Dental Students’ Perspective (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND COVID-19’s high transmissibility led to gathering restrictions which had wide-reaching impacts. Dental schools were uniquely positioned to experience large disruptions due to restrictions on attending in-person lectures as well as limitations placed on applied pre-clinical and clinical activities. Students not only had to rapidly switch to online technology based-learning (TB-learning) modules but also experienced high levels of social isolation and anxiety around the virus transmission. Although initial studies of students' perception of distance learning and mental health during the beginning of the pandemic were performed in different countries, there was no evaluation for dental pre-clinical courses. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the pre-clinical students' perception concerning the switch to TB-learning modules and fear amidst COVID-19. METHODS An anonymous online survey was delivered to 132 dental students in the fixed prosthodontics pre-clinical laboratory classes at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, to evaluate students' perceptions concerning technology-based learning, fear amidst COVID-19 and the impact on their pre-clinical training. Responses were collected through a Likert scale. A Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was determined to estimate the relationship between two variables in isolation (p<0.01). Afterwards, an ordinal regression analysis was performed on variables of interest to determine how module variables (typically within the instructor's control) influenced the student outcomes (p=0.05). RESULTS The survey had a response rate of 30%, with 39 individuals consenting and responding. 53.8% of students surveyed showed increased difficulties in retaining, visualizing, or understanding the materials using online teaching methods. Similarly, 64.1% of students also found online classes more difficult to concentrate on than in-person classes. When asked about their experience with online courses, 79.5% of surveyed students either strongly agreed, agreed, or somewhat agreed to feel fatigued from TB- learning. Through Spearman's rho correlation analysis, four module variables were identified to significantly impact student outcomes. For students' answering that the modules were useful to pre-clinical training: questions in quizzes (rs=0.514, p<0.01), relevant handouts (rs =0.729, p<0.01), and high-quality audiovisuals (rs =0.585, p<0.01) were variables of importance. Similarly, students answered that online classes were an effective way to learn about the topic: organization (rs =0.512, p<0.01), questions in quizzes (rs =0.431, p<0.01), relevant handouts (rs =0.551, p<0.01) were identified. CONCLUSIONS As dental schools continue implementing some forms of TB-learning into their curriculum, this paper identifies the students' struggles with the paradigm shift. Additionally, this work highlights four variables within the control of instructors that can help improve content deliverance which in turn can help improve the students' experience. Those variables are module organization, quizzes, quality handouts, and quality audiovisuals.