Virtual Poster Presentations Enhancing Engagement in Dental Education

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the increased engagement with academic posters as a summative assessment tool for first-year undergraduate dental and dental hygienist students. It explores the transition from face-to-face to virtual poster presentations due to the Covid pandemic and assesses how the learning design has impacted student engagement with the virtual gallery. Posters were displayed in a Virtual Gallery with audio narrations, Declarations of Contribution, and comment boxes for questions. Student groups were assessed on both the quality of their posters and their ability to answer questions from peers and staff.
Methods: Data was collected from trace data on SharePoint, where the virtual gallery was hosted, to analyse the number of views and comments on each poster. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. The mean number of views (A) and comments (B) per poster ± standard deviations were recorded across four years. The view count was obtained from the SharePoint page, using an algorithm designed to filter out continuous, repeating operations by the same user on the same item or constant page refreshes. The number of group posters for each year were as follows: 2019-20 (n=30); 2020-21 (n=18); 2021-22 (n=18); 2022-23 (n=21).
Results: The Virtual Gallery facilitated dynamic interactions and increased engagement levels year-on-year. In 2022-23, a significant increase in average views per poster was observed following a change in peer-assessment design, where feedback was discussed in recorded Teams meetings. The virtual setting also provided a sustainable repository for archiving student posters.
Conclusions: The Virtual Poster Gallery proved to be a viable and adaptable alternative to face-to-face presentations, enhancing student engagement and providing valuable metrics for instructional design. However, the asynchronous format did not fully develop students’ skills in responding to real-time questions. Incorporating synchronous interactions may better prepare students for face-to-face presentations and improve their ability to engage in dialogues with examiners.