COMPARING DENTAL STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCES AND PERCEPTIONS ON VIRTUAL LECTURING AND THE TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE

Introduction. The present study aimed at assessing the perception of clinical dental students on virtual and traditional lectures, and at comparing their didactic performance between the two lecturing techniques. Materials and methods. The final didactic grades of all students from two levels who received an objectively unified clinical endodontic undergraduate course through two different lecturing modes (traditional and virtual) were compared. The same sample was surveyed in terms of their preference between the two lecturing techniques. P values ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results and discussion. A total of 270 students were involved, and a statistically significant difference was observed in the mean values of the final grades between the virtual and traditional technique in favor of the latter one, whereas gender had no significant effect. Virtual lecturing was the most preferred technique. Conclusions. Although virtual and traditional lecturing techniques are both valid methods, the latter demonstrated superior didactic performance. Students preferred the virtual lecturing technique more than the traditional one. However, a better-designed research is needed to verify the true effect of the two lecturing techniques on students’ performances

• DENTAL EDUCATION
• face-to-face
• lecturing
• traditional
• virtual