Virtual Dental Education -- Online Textbook of Gnathology

Method: Project was conducted for one year and involved a team of computer sciences experts. Beside main textbook website, accessory functions were programmed. Glossary including most common terms was integrated into the textbook. Advanced features provided automatic explanation when pointer was over the term defined in glossary. Search engine and multimedia support was also included. Textbook was entirely editable using the default web browser software as a tool which enabled easy access for all contributors. The web site was tested by a group of students (N=30) and staff members (N=22) of the School of Dental Medicine University of Zagreb. Main features covered in evaluation questionnaire were: ease of usage, intuitiveness of browsing, site updating and ability to find information in the textbook.

Results: The project resulted in fully functional web site Gnathology@net available at http://www.gnatologija.net . Mean ease of usage index calculated from gathered answers was 8.4 measured on scale from 1 to 10. Around 91% of students and 84% of staff found this web site intuitive to use. Approximately 45% of the staff had no significant problem in adding new article, 32% had problems which needed an educative course and 23% felt that technology was too complicated. When examinees were asked to find a picture or explanations of specific term in site, mean time was 57 seconds.

Conclusion: From our experience new published textbooks cannot contain latest information, while online publication can be subjected to constant updating and equipped with multimedia educational information.

This project was sponsored by Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology under No. 2001-013