Development of an Educational Software for Diagnosis in Oral Medicine and Evaluation of Dental Students’ Attitudes: An Educational Intervention

Background: An oral examination might reveal important diagnostic information regarding a patient’s general health. There are several natural changes in the soft tissue structures of the mouth that may resemble a pathological condition. The aim of this research was to develop an educational web- based application for diagnosis in oral medicine and evaluation of the students’ attitudes towards it. Methods: This educational intervention involved one sample group and was conducted from September to December ۲۰۱۹. In the first step, the educational software was designed based on the ADDIE instructional design model. In the second step, ۳۰ dental students were selected by census sampling, and their attitudes towards the designed educational web application were assessed. The web-based educational application was developed using the asp.net web form framework and the #c programming language. The standard kaplan educational product questionnaire was used to assess dental students’ attitudes. Descriptive statistics including the mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency were used. Statistical significance was calculated for the components of the questionnaire using the one sample t-test and the cutoff point of ۳. SPSS V۲۶ was used to analyze the tests. Results: The majority of students had positive attitudes in all ۱۲ domains of the questionnaire including objectives (P=۰.۰۰۰۱), assessment (P=۰.۰۰۰۱), practice (P=۰.۰۰۰۱), examples (P=۰.۰۰۰۱), information (P=۰.۰۰۱), multimedia (P=۰.۰۲۸), overviews (P=۰.۰۱۱), integration (P=۰.۱۴۴), motivation (P=۰.۰۰۰۱); organization (P=۰.۰۰۳), usability (P=۰.۰۰۰۱), and personalization (P=۰.۱۴۴) which were significantly greater than average and were acceptable. Despite the difference between the two domains (integration and personalization) with the average score, no statistically significant difference was seen. Conclusion: The innovative educational software was successfully developed. The results revealed that students were extremely satisfied with the quality of the educational software. As a result, it can be effectively employed as a teaching aid when combined with conventional education.

Keywords:

dentistry , education , Software design , Attitudes , online learning , Virtual Learning