Understanding the Use of Videos in Dental Education

Objectives: The aim of the research was to understand how dental students at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) are using online content as a learning tool and to compare perceptions among different classes (D'21, D'22, D'23).
Methods: After ethical approval was received, participants were invited to complete a previously validated online questionnaire via Qualtrics. The 40 questions survey instrument was distributed to TUSDM dental students using the class e-lists (D21-D23) during a 2-week time frame. The survey covered four major themes including: perception of online dental content, use of videos in the dental curriculum, use of internet, and feedback. For the statistical analysis, frequencies and percentages were calculated for each survey item. The association between class year and ordinal items on the survey were assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. SAS Version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC) was used for analysis.
Results: Participants (n=263,) from all classes shared their perception of the available online dental content. 81% of students use their laptops as their main device with 44% of student using online content as a complementary tool. Google (79%), YouTube (76%) and PubMed (42%) were the most commonly used for theory purposes. YouTube (86%), Canvas (65%) and other dental school sites (22%) were used to find dental related videos. 85% of students are sharing what they’ve learned from videos with classmates and whereas, 84% of student aren’t sharing or discussing the content of videos with their faculty. 48% of the participants are fairly confident with the accuracy of the videos they find online as content has some relevance to what is taught at TUSDM. 48% of participants identified that videos of 5 to 15 minutes have the ideal length.
Conclusions: Current data shows that students have been and want to engage with videos and online content to aid in their learning of both didactic and clinical material from the use of videos. Free, reliable and updated videos can be used in very aspect of the dental curriculum at TUSDM.