Evaluation of online dental education amid COVID-19 pandemic in undergraduate dental students of Pakistan

Bharat Kumar; Imran Samejo; Shahid Mirani; Naseer Ahmed; Muneeb Ahmed Lone; Afsheen Maqsood

Abstract
Objective: To determine the effectiveness of online dental education amid COVID-19 pandemic in undergraduate dental students of our institutions.
Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from November-December 2020, and included 239 undergraduate students at dental institutes of Sindh, Pakistan. An online questionnaire link was sent to dental students through emails and social media platforms. SPSS 25 was used for data analysis.
Results: Out of total 239 participants, 101(42.25%) were from private and 138(57.74%) from public teaching institutes. Fifty-eight (24.3%) students were in first professional, 36(15.1%) in second, 22(9.2%) in third and 123(51.5%) in fourth year BDS. Online platforms for teaching used were Zoom® by 133 (55.6%), Google classroom® by 54(22.6%) and Microsoft team® by 52(21.8%) students. Majority, 168(70.3%) participants believed online teaching was inadequate to train and prepare for actual clinical scenarios. There was a significant difference (p<0.001) amongst students’ perception regarding online teaching motivation, methods, impact, assessment, teacher’s competency and feedback evaluation.
Conclusion: Undergraduate students were facing technical difficulties with online teaching in the region. Although they felt motivated with online teaching, but believed that teachers were not trained for online education. Students reported that online teaching was less intimidating than face to face learning but it is difficult to interact in online lectures. Majority of participants felt that lack of training and physical teaching might affect their future growth of training and preparation for actual clinical scenarios.

Key words: Online education, undergraduate students, Bachelor of dental surgery, COVID-19.

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