PRE-DOCTORAL ORTHODONTIC ONLINE LEARNING EFFECTS ON CLINICAL DECISION MAKING

Abstract

Objectives: A pilot study evaluated the effect of an online assessment on orthodontic diagnostic decisions of dental students subsequently attending an orthodontic diagnostic examination. Case-based assessment improved clinical performance scores when screening patients. This study continues exploration of student performance by changing the time of assessment completion. Methods: Third year dental students are required to complete an orthodontic diagnostic examination as a graded clinical course requirement. Before the clinical examination, students review an online module subsequent to a didactic lecture course. The control group (n=66) completed a graded pre-assessment before viewing the online module and a graded post assessment after reviewing the online module. Both pre and post assessments were completed prior to the rotation. The experimental group (n=66) completed the pre-assessment prior to viewing the online module and completed the post-assessment after the screening rotation. Control and experimental groups completed a self-efficacy survey before and after the screening rotation to evaluate their self-confidence in diagnosing and treating malocclusions. The control and experimental groups were compared based on their online diagnostic assessment scores and self-efficacy surveys. Results: We found a substantial increase in total online pre and post-test assessment performance for the experimental group (p=0.000), but no difference between the pre-self-efficacy scores from the control group and experimental group (p=.631). Finally, a substantial increase in the students’ self-efficacy confidence occurred by changing the timing (p=0.002). Conclusion: This study shows that screening patients in a clinical scenario can improve student’s performance in case based assessments. Student confidence also increased after taking the post-assessment module and screening patients. Evaluating patients helped students solidify their learned diagnostic information and better apply it to a case based scenario.