JDE
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

J Dent Educ. 72(9): 1048-1057 2008
© 2008 American Dental Education Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pahinis, K.
Right arrow Articles by Cannavina, G.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pahinis, K.
Right arrow Articles by Cannavina, G.

Educational Methodologies

A Blended Learning Course Taught to Different Groups of Learners in a Dental School: Follow-Up Evaluation

Kimon Pahinis, D.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.; Christopher W. Stokes, M.Ed., Ph.D.; Trevor F. Walsh, B.D.S., F.D.S.R.C.S., M.Sc., D.D.S.; Effrosyni Tsitrou, D.D.S., M.Med.Sci., Ph.D.; Giuseppe Cannavina, Ph.D.

Key words: dental education, computers, web-based, blended learning, online, evidence-based

Submitted for publication 05/29/07; accepted 04/17/08

This article reports the results of a follow-up study conducted to investigate students’ perceptions about a blended learning health informatics course that combined online and traditional classroom instruction. The course is taught to five different groups of students at the School of Clinical Dentistry of the University of Sheffield each academic year: first-, third-, and fourth-year dental students, dental hygiene and therapy students, and postgraduate dental students. The goal of the study was to determine the impact of the modifications made to the course after the first year of implementation. To accomplish this goal, students’ perceptions of this blended learning course were compared after the first and second implementations. The methodology used for this study was action research. The data were collected using three processes: questionnaires were used to collect contextual data from the students taking the course; a student-led, nominal group technique was used to collect group data from the participants; and a non-participant observer technique was used to record the context in which certain group and individual behaviors occurred. Depending on group assignment, between 41.5 and 91.5 percent of students believed that the blended-learning course had added to their skills. The online learning environment was perceived as a useful resource by 75 percent of students in four of the five student groups, but only 45 percent of the fourth-year dental students indicated it was a useful resource. The perceived lack of sufficient online support material was one of the main concerns of the students at the nominal group evaluation sessions. The non-participant observer technique identified different engagement levels among the student groups. Discernible differences were identified, with improvement in some areas and a decline in others compared to a previous evaluation. The change in the delivery method influenced the students’ comprehension of the material negatively and the learning environment positively, but did not influence online collaboration among students.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by the American Dental Education Association.