Student Response to a Blended Radiology Course: A Multi-Year Study in Dental Education

Abstract

Universities around the world are increasingly moving towards blended learning models to engage their 21st century learners (Alammary et al., 2014; Brenard et al., 2014; Tandoh et al., 2014). However, students’ engagement and satisfaction with blended learning in dental education remain understudied. To address this gap, this study examines the effects of a blended learning approach on students’ satisfaction and engagement within dental hygiene and dentistry oral radiology courses. Thirty-five students participated in a survey designed to measure two main constructs: student engagement (per Fredericks et al., 2005) and student satisfaction (per Owston et al., 2013) with the addition of one student providing interview data on each of these constructs. It was found that students were generally satisfied (67%) with the blended learning course format with 65% of students expressing a preference for the blended format. This finding was complemented by students’ also expressing that they were emotionally engaged (70% engagement score), cognitively engaged (69% engagement score), and behaviourally engaged (61% engagement score). These findings suggest that blended learning may be of benefit to the engagement and satisfaction of dental students’ learning the interpretation of dental radiographs.

Understanding intention and use of digital elements in higher education teaching

“…Digital learning approaches can be integrated into F2F teaching by incorporating digital elements into F2F courses. If the knowledge is imparted partly digitally and partly via the traditional F2F approach, this is referred to as blended learning (Bernard et al, 2014 ; Pacheco-Pereira et al, 2020 ) or hybrid learning (Ryan et al, 2016 ). Pure e-learning does not use F2F components, is delivered exclusively via digital learning elements, and can enable learning independent of time and place (Giugliano et al, 2020 ).…”