Application of e-learning in teaching the principles of interpretation of oral and maxillofacial radiology (educational website design)

Abstract: Radiology has important role in the timely and accurate diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial lesions and diseases. Interpretation of oral and maxillofacial lesions radiographies is a professional and vital skill for students and dentists. With the advancement of technology and the replacement of electronic and internet resources rather than paper sources, there is a need for a training system to use this in the interpretation of principles of oral and maxillofacial lesions radiographies. Therefore, we decided to create an educational website with the ability to run on the smartphones, laptops and tablets along with the ability to display ways to communicate with admins, the ability to display various educational data such as photos, slides, texts, video files and the ability to take the test were designed. This educational website would provide valuable help to the teaching of dental students in the field of interpretation of oral and maxillofacial radiology. Then, the system was presented to the group of the dental students, who had opted for a practical radiology course. At the end of the semester students' usage and their' satisfaction of educational website by gender segregation with using an online checklist that designed for this purpose and presented at the end of the working with website part, was evaluated. It was found that the number of visits to electronic devices at different times had same frequency among students. Almost girls twice as many boys used electronic devices more than two hours a day. The most common use of electronic devices was only for social media. The most educational use about the specialized field was half an hour. Web-based teaching and e-learning is a valuable way to teach the principles of interpretation of oral and maxillofacial radiology in dentistry and can replace the usual teaching method in dental schools.