Students´ preparedness, learning habits and the greatest difficulties in studying Histology in the digital era: A comparison between students of general and dental schools

Abstract

Introduction There are only sporadic references in literature regarding general medicine and dentistry student´s preparedness for Histology, study resources and how students might use them in the era of virtual microscopy. Methods A structured questionnaire was used to evaluate students´ opinion, with 192 students of general medicine and 82 students of dentistry responding. Results The dentistry students evaluate their previous knowledge of basic high school disciplines as less helpful when compared to their general medicine colleagues, but this difference diminishes during the first year of medical school studies. Students of dentistry display a better orientation in the amount of study resources (electronic vs printed) and also the ways of their use (practical vs theoretical preparation). The main problems surfacing in the study of Histology have been: the lack of time due to the high demands of Anatomy, problems with correct identification of structures in specimens and correct orientation in a large number of available study resources. Students indicate that they would appreciate the introduction of interactive exercise tests to verify practical and theoretical knowledge. Conclusion We revealed significant differences between students of general medicine and dentistry in terms of student´s preparedness and learning habits. According to our findings, it is still necessary to further develop teaching methods utilising virtual microscopy, taking into account the needs of both general medicine and dental school students.

Sustainable Distance Online Educational Process for Dental Students during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Additionally, diminished interaction in online courses was reported in our study as also mentioned elsewhere [ 50 ]. Students at school B seemed to ask questions significantly less frequently than the same year students at school A.…”

“…Technical problems can also be a source of annoyance and discouragement, as mentioned in other studies [ 51 ]. In addition, engaging enough senior students at school A who had less interest in asking questions was difficult because their perception was that online teaching does not adequately support theory learning and preparation for clinical practice [ 50 ]. Concerning the instructors’ ability to answer students’ questions during the virtual classroom, this was not affected by the teaching method implemented.…”

Immersive 3D Educational Contents: A Technical Note for Dental Educators

“…The prime limitation in following such a protocol is the need for educators with experience in non-dental software, that may impose collaborations with other universities or training. Moreover, 3D files can sometimes lack an entertaining aspect and be too complex for students to manipulate [30], and therefore require the development of more user-friendly interphase. As the resources for the development of these educative tools are not always known, a dental faculty network, open-access publications or educational congresses could be relevant strategies to share tips and tools, such as 3D PDF files [7], free software to interact and paint on 3D files (Paint 3D, Microsoft, Redmond, EU) or Blender (Figure 6d,e), free web-based platforms (Metaciel, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France) [31], or open source codes of applications [9].…”

The challenges of histology education

“…There are other practical reasons for knowing histology in the contexts of general practice and surgery, e.g., organ transplantations (Girardi et al, 2021; Reese et al, 2021). In medical education, histology is often perceived as secondary to gross anatomy because the latter has more clinical relevance (Tauber et al, 2021). However, this is discipline‐specific, as pathologists will attest.…”

“…Nowadays, social media is often used by learners in their quest to understand histopathology and clinical practice (Ahmad et al, 2014). In order to engage students more effectively, numerous ways of teaching the subjects and delivering content have been proposed (e.g., videos, virtual microscopy) (Rowse et al, 2015) (HAPS educator) (Tauber et al, 2021). The inference from these attempts is that no one method is superior to others.…”