Key Points
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There is a growing interest in the use of web-based teaching to support the dental curriculum, especially as a means of self-directed learning.
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Communication, interactivity and displaying clinical images are the main strengths of web-based teaching.
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Web-based teaching appears to be more accepted by students than teachers.
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Both students and staff see web-based teaching as a means to supplement rather than replace traditional methods of learning in the dental undergraduate programme.
Abstract
Background: Computer-aided learning (CAL) offers advantages over traditional methods of learning as it allows students to work in their own time and pace. The School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham has created an electronic learning website, named the Ecourse. This is designed to be a web-based supplement to the dental undergraduate curriculum.
Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of third year dental students and members of staff about the Ecourse website.
Method: A questionnaire was produced and piloted before being distributed to all 65 third year dental students to obtain their opinions about the Ecourse website. The views of Ecourse were sought from four members of staff by performing qualitative, semi-structured interviews.
Results: Lecture handouts and textbooks were reported as the sources used most often, by 96% of students. Eighty-six per cent of students are accessing the Ecourse mainly at the School of Dentistry, but 53% are also accessing it at home. Students liked the multiple-choice questions, downloading extra notes and looking at pictures and animation to explain clinical procedures. The majority of the students (79%) want the Ecourse to be used as a supplement to the undergraduate programme and 7% wanted it to replace formal lectures. Staff recognised the benefits of the Ecourse but were concerned about plagiarism, the effect on lecture attendance and the lack of feedback from students on existing CAL material.
Conclusion: Students consider the Ecourse as a positive method of supplementing traditional methods of learning in the dental undergraduate programme. However in contrast teaching staff expressed negative views on the use of e-learning.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank those dental students who took part in the study, all the members of staff interviewed and both Ms. Rebecca Eyon and Mr Giles Perryer for their advice with this study.
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Gupta, B., White, D. & Walmsley, A. The attitudes of undergraduate students and staff to the use of electronic learning. Br Dent J 196, 487–492 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4811179
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4811179
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