Dental students' perceptions and academic performance in a preclinical fixed prosthodontics course delivered remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The quarantine, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forced dental schools globally to change to distant learning methods which include viewing previously recorded lectures or attending online virtual classes. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of three methods of teaching: Online interactive virtual classes, recorded lectures, and real-life classroom lectures on the academic performance of dental students. The second aim was to evaluate the students' perceptions of the two remote teaching methods as a substitute for traditional classroom lectures. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted with the second-year dental students at the College of Dentistry, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, during the spring semester of 2020. The last six lectures of a Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics course were delivered remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The students' performance in these lectures was compared to their performance in the first nine lectures of the course delivered traditionally before the quarantine period. An online survey was distributed to the students at the end of the course with questions about their perceptions regarding the different teaching methods used to deliver the didactic component of the course. Results and Discussion: The performance of 104 students (56 males and 48 females) was assessed through the number of correct responses for each teaching method. The percentage of students who responded correctly to all the questions was 44% for the classroom lecture format, 75% in the interactive virtual class format, and 78% in the recorded lecture format. The response rate to the online survey was 87.5%. The majority of the students (78%) indicated that the interactive virtual classes were an effective learning method. The perception about viewing recorded material was also positive as 83% of the students agreed that it is an adequate learning method when the classroom lectures were canceled. Nevertheless, only 43% indicated that recorded material could be used as a substitute for classroom attendance. Conclusion: The students' performance in the lectures taught remotely in interactive virtual classes or by viewing recorded lectures was both effective and comparable to traditional classroom lectures. The dental students were generally satisfied with the remote online education.