One year of COVID-19 pandemic: a cross sectional study on teaching oral and maxillofacial surgery

Head & Face Medicine

Martin Lemos¹  Kristian Kniha²  Frank Hölzle²  Marius Heitzer²  Florian Peters²  Anna Bock²  Philipp Winnand²  Ali Modabber² 

[1] Audiovisual Media Center, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstraße 30, D-52074, Aachen, Germany;Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52074, Aachen, Germany;

关键词: COVID-19;    Dental education;    Digitalization;    Pandemic;    Survey;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13005-021-00304-z

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe pandemic has challenged educational institutions to catalyze digitalization and rapidly develop online teaching formats. The aim of the study was to evaluate the teaching offered for oral and maxillofacial surgery at our university during the pandemic and to investigate the students’ perceptions of the current situation.MethodsA 38-item questionnaire with five sections (demographic information, lectures, internships, e-learning, and pandemic-related solutions/effects) was created online. Most questions were answered on a 10-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating “fully agree/positive” and 10 indicating “totally disagree/negative.” The remaining questions were either answered with yes/no, percent value, or open-ended text responses. All 3rd-5th year dental students were invited to voluntarily participate and were sent a link by email in a general mail shot.ResultsA total of 63.7% of the participants had no prior experience with online courses before the pandemic. The students stated that the change from face-to-face to online teaching worked very well in the last two semesters (mean = 2.73, standard deviation = 2.05). Overall, the pandemic had a rather positive influence on the acquisition of theoretical skills and a negative influence on the acquisition of practical skills (p < 0.0001). The evaluation showed that, compared to other dental clinics at our university, the department for oral and maxillofacial surgery was well prepared for the pandemic.ConclusionDigitalization of oral and maxillofacial surgery teaching in dental education is possible but depends on the institution’s preparatory work and technological possibilities. The students declared a high acceptance of digital learning formats and indicated an increased motivation to learn due to e-learning. The pandemic’s influence on the students’ education was rated ambivalent.

【 授权许可】

CC BY