Online and Offline Virtual Training Versus Traditional Training on Theoretical Knowledge of Dentistry Students in Primary Tooth Pulp Treatment

Background: Higher education faced difficult conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic after January 2020. In such a situation, education through virtual space was one of the highly important and considerable proposed programs. So far, to our knowledge, no study has compared online and offline virtual education with traditional education in dentistry students. Accordingly, this study compared the efficacy of online and offline virtual training on theoretical knowledge of dentistry students in primary tooth pulp treatment with that of traditional training. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted on dental students who have taken the theoretical pediatrics 2 course in the second half of the academic year 2020-2021. All students were randomly divided into three groups of 20 people, including online and offline virtual training and traditional training (control) groups. Educational contents were delivered to students in the form of an identical PowerPoint for all groups. The PowerPoint slides were prepared and virtual and face-to-face classes were held by the same person (Instructor). In addition, the pre-test and post-test were performed virtually with the same questions (20 questions designed by the instructor). Finally, SPSS-23 was used to describe and analyze the data. Results: The participants were 60 students with an average age of 23±0.48 years, including 42 males (70.0%.). No significant difference was observed among groups in terms of gender, age, grade point average (GPA), and pre-test score (P>0.05). The post-test score was significantly higher than the pre-test score (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference in terms of post-test and "post-test-pre-test" scores among the groups (P>0.05). GPA was significantly correlated with the post-test score (P<0.001) and score changes (post-test-pre-test score) (P<0.001). Conclusions: It was found that online and offline virtual education are two suitable alternatives for the traditional education of dental students in the primary teeth pulp treatment course.