Recommendations for the development of e-modules for the continuing professional development of European dentists

Virtual learning object for developing knowledge about the diagnosis and management of molar incisor hypomineralization

AIM

To develop, apply, and evaluate a virtual learning object (VLO) for teaching undergraduate dental students and paediatric dentists to diagnose and manage molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH).

DESIGN

This controlled educational intervention included 170 undergraduate dental students and 50 paediatric dentists. The student intervention group (VLOG) was trained by the VLO, the control group of students (CG) received a synchronous virtual class, and the group of paediatric dentists (PDG) was trained by the VLO. Pre-test and post-test data were analyzed with a mixed one-way and Tukey's post hoc ANOVA test (α = 0.05). The answers to the questionnaire were analyzed with the one-way ANOVA test and Tukey's post hoc test (α = 0.05).

RESULTS

The values obtained in the pre-test were significantly lower than those obtained in the post-test for all groups. The specialists showed a higher level of knowledge before and after the MIH training compared with the students (p < .001). Similarly, statistical differences were found in the level of knowledge, which increased after MIH training (p < .001). There were no differences between the CG and VLOG.

CONCLUSIONS

The level of knowledge increased in all groups after training regardless of the method used. VLOG works similar to traditional teaching approaches.

Learning Theory-Driven Tips for Designing Effective Learning Solutions for the Continuous Education of Community Pharmacists to Enhance Patient-Centered Care—A Qualitative Study

The constant development of medical and pharmaceutical sciences and the changing roles of pharmacists highlight the importance of lifelong learning in their profession. Given the identified knowledge gaps in the literature in terms of pharmacists’ preferences for lifelong learning, the study aimed to evaluate the opinions and attitudes of community pharmacists towards lifelong learning, including their previous experiences and educational needs, in order to propose evidence-based tips for designing such solutions and interventions intended for them both in face-to-face and online forms. For this purpose, ten semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with Polish community pharmacists on the topic using a thematic guide. Subsequently, they were subjected to literal transcription and interpretative phenomenological analysis by two independent researchers using phenomenology as the qualitative approach. The identified themes covered the topic’s relevance for pharmacists’ work, practice-oriented form and content, previous learners’ experiences as a foundation for further learning, commercial initiatives’ risks, motivation sources, and barriers for participation in lifelong learning solutions so far. Based on the insights provided by the respondents, as well as scientifically proven learning theories and educational principles, ten tips were formulated for designing recipient-friendly learning solutions and interventions within the framework of postgraduate lifelong learning of pharmacists.

A Comprehensive Understanding of the Use of e-Learning in Continuing Education: Experiences of Pharmacists in a Public Health System

INTRODUCTION

The health and education sectors have experienced rapid technological development. In this scenario, the use of Internet technology has grown as an option for the expansion of continuing education (CE), as it allows professionals to develop educational activities with flexibility, autonomy, and convenience. E-learning has gained popularity and currently, thousands of online courses are being offered. However, studies of e-learning in professional training have presented only a few specific foci of study.

OBJECTIVE

to develop a comprehensive approach to understand both the experience and the complex scenario of the use of e-learning in the CE for pharmacists.

METHOD

Field research in 10 Brazilian states through interviews and focus groups with alumni of a CE e-learning specialization course for pharmacists in public health. Data analysis used the model of socio-technical systems and was based on a framework with the components Objectives, People, Processes, Culture, Technology, Infrastructure, and Scenario.

RESULTS

The People and Culture components indicated the assimilation and normalization of technologies in the educational process. Although the infrastructure (technical and organizational) was deficient in some regions, the Technology component suggested that the characteristics of the course design, associated with the personal characteristics of the students, provided ways to overcome obstacles. The objectives of the use of distance education seem to be related to the possibility of greater accessibility and autonomy. The Processes component, in turn, revealed the burden that a e-learning course puts on the pharmacist.

CONCLUSION

E-learning proved to be useful to enable and expand access to education, providing pharmacists with an opportunity for CE. On the other hand, e-learning contributes to the normalization of the precarious working conditions of pharmacists, attributing to individuals the sole responsibility for the CE even in an institutional CE program, which results in work overload.

Learner behaviors in synchronous online prosthodontic education during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic

Statement of problem

Synchronous online prosthodontic courses became a popular learning mode during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Nonetheless, the extent of learner participation and completion of these courses remains unknown.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to assess learner behaviors in synchronous online prosthodontic continuing education lectures in China during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and methods

All live online prosthodontic courses held by an online dental school in China from February to May 2020 were retrieved. The no-cost lectures could be accessed anonymously and viewed repeatedly on the day of broadcast. Learning behavior data (teacher speaking time, audience total, timing of first visit to the online classroom, viewing time, and completion rate) were obtained. Learning progress was calculated by dividing viewing time by teacher speaking time. When a learner progressed through 95% of a lecture, the lecture was considered completed.

Results

A total of 41 781 learners participated in 18 online prosthodontic courses, which had a mean duration of 77.2 ±15.8 minutes. For each lecture, 2321 ±1454 participants attended, with 510 ±404 participants completing each session. There were 13 098 participants (31.35%) who viewed the lectures for less than 1 minute. Approximately half of the participants viewed the lectures for less than 10 minutes, with their learning progress failing to pass 10%. The average completion rate was 21.97%, with variation in completion rate dependent on when a learner first visited the online classroom. Significant differences were found among the lecture completion rates and the timing of the first visit to the online classroom (P<.001).

Conclusions

Synchronous online prosthodontic education courses in China had a high number of participants but low learning progress and completion rates during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Acceptability and feasibility of an interprofessional end-of-life/palliative care educational intervention in the intensive care unit: A mixed-methods study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to describe a seven hour End-of-Life/Palliative Care educational intervention including online content related to symptom management, communication and decision-making capacity and an in-person group integration activity, from the perspective of the interprofessional team in terms of its acceptability and feasibility.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A mixed-methods study design was used.

SETTING AND SAMPLE

The study was conducted in a medical-surgical Intensive Care Unit in Montreal, Canada. The sample consisted of 27 clinicians of the Intensive Care Unit interprofessional team who completed the End-of-Life/Palliative Care educational intervention, and participated in focus groups and completed a self-administered questionnaire.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The main outcomes were the acceptability and feasibility of the educational intervention.

FINDINGS

The intervention was perceived to be appropriate and suitable in providing clinicians with knowledge and skills in symptom management and communication through self-reflection and self-evaluation, provision of assessment tools and promotion of interprofessional teamwork. The online format was more feasible, but the in-person group activity was key for the integration of knowledge and the promotion of interprofessional discussions.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that an interprofessional educational intervention integrating on-line content with in-person training has the potential to support clinicians in providing quality End-of-Life/Palliative Care in the Intensive Care Unit.

Web-Based Information on the Treatment of Tobacco Dependence for Oral Health Professionals: Analysis of English-Written Websites

BACKGROUND

Studies have been conducted on the content and quality of Web-based information for patients who are interested in smoking cessation advice and for health care practitioners regarding the content of e-learning programs about tobacco cessation. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no such information about the quality of Web-based learning resources regarding smoking cessation dedicated to oral health professionals.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the quality of the content of webpages providing information about smoking cessation for oral health care professionals.

METHODS

Websites were identified using Google and Health on Net (HON) search engines using the terms: smoking cessation OR quit smoking OR stop smoking OR 3As OR 5As OR tobacco counselling AND dentistry OR dental clinic OR dentist OR dental hygienist OR oral health professionals. The first 100 consecutive results of the 2 search engines were considered for the study. Quality assessment was rated using the DISCERN questionnaire, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, and the HON seal. In addition, smoking cessation content on each site was assessed using an abbreviated version of the Smoke Treatment Scale (STS-C) and the Smoking Treatment Scale-Rating (STS-R). To assess legibility of the selected websites, the Flesch Reading Ease (FRES) and the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level (FKRGL) were used. Websites were also classified into multimedia and nonmultimedia and friendly and nonfriendly usability.

RESULTS

Of the first 200 sites selected (100 of Google and 100 of HON), only 11 met the inclusion criteria and mainly belonged to governmental institutions (n=8), with the others being prepared by Professional Associations (n=2) and nonprofit organizations (n=1). Only 3 were exclusively dedicated to smoking cessation. The average score obtained with the DISCERN was 3.0, and the average score in the FKRGL and FRES was 13.31 (standard deviation, SD 3.34) and 40.73 (SD 15.46), respectively. Of the 11 websites evaluated, none achieved all the four JAMA benchmarks. The mean score of STS-R among all the websites was 2.81 (SD 0.95) out of 5. A significant strong positive correlation was obtained between the DISCERN mean values and the STS-R (R=.89, P=.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The mean quality of webpages with information for oral health care professionals about smoking cessation is low and displayed a high heterogeneity. These webpages are also difficult to read and often lack multimedia resources, which further limits their usefulness.

Cross-year peer-assisted learning using the inverted ("flipped") classroom design: A pilot study in dentistry

BACKGROUND

The inverted classroom model (ICM) represents a special combination of online and attendance learning. The implementation of the didactic concept of "peer-assisted learning" (PAL) within an ICM design has not yet been described in the literature for the field of restorative dentistry.

OBJECTIVE

It was the goal of the present study to develop an ICM offering in a cross-year PAL format (ICM-cyPAL), and then introduce and evaluate it.

METHOD

The pilot project was conducted at the dental clinic at the Goethe University of Frankfurt/Main, where following its conceptual development and implementation with three consecutive cohorts of students in their first clinical semester (the sixth semester at university) the ICM-cyPAL offering was evaluated. Data on acceptance, tutor effectiveness, group interaction models and learning strategies were collected using an evaluative instrument.

RESULTS

121 students (tutees) participated in three cohorts. The response rate reached 98.3 %. In total, the offering was given an average rating of 6.97±1.93 (from 1 = unsatisfactory to 10 = excellent). As the tutees explained the attention that the tutors employed gave to the group was "just right" (4.65±1.04; where 1 = too controlling and 4 = just right to 7 = left the group on their own too long) and talked "just the right amount" (4.54±0.95; where 1 = too much and 4 = just right to 7 = talked too little). The results for tutor effectiveness reached values between 3.26±0.94 and 3.78±0.87; for the evaluation of group interaction models average values were obtained from 3.41±0.98 to 3.89±0.73 (on a Likert scale of 1 = do not at all agree to 5 = completely agree). Concerning the surveyed learning strategies, the dimensions of "resource management" and "implementation of the learning materials" were given the highest and lowest rankings, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The tutees' ratings of the newly developed and implemented ICM-cyPAL offering in the dental context were mainly positive. The thematic orientation of the structured training program needs to be optimized. The offering itself requires both a high degree of organization and solid financial and staffing resources.

Does peer learning or higher levels of e-learning improve learning abilities? A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The fast development of e-learning and social forums demands us to update our understanding of e-learning and peer learning. We aimed to investigate if higher, pre-defined levels of e-learning or social interaction in web forums improved students' learning ability.

METHODS

One hundred and twenty Danish medical students were randomized to six groups all with 20 students (eCases level 1, eCases level 2, eCases level 2+, eTextbook level 1, eTextbook level 2, and eTextbook level 2+). All students participated in a pre-test, Group 1 participated in an interactive case-based e-learning program, while Group 2 was presented with textbook material electronically. The 2+ groups were able to discuss the material between themselves in a web forum. The subject was head injury and associated treatment and observation guidelines in the emergency room. Following the e-learning, all students completed a post-test. Pre- and post-tests both consisted of 25 questions randomly chosen from a pool of 50 different questions.

RESULTS

All students concluded the study with comparable pre-test results. Students at Level 2 (in both groups) improved statistically significant compared to students at level 1 (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between level 2 and level 2+. However, level 2+ was associated with statistically significant greater student's satisfaction than the rest of the students (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This study applies a new way of comparing different types of e-learning using a pre-defined level division and the possibility of peer learning. Our findings show that higher levels of e-learning does in fact provide better results when compared with the same type of e-learning at lower levels. While social interaction in web forums increase student satisfaction, learning ability does not seem to change. Both findings are relevant when designing new e-learning materials.