Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate the effectiveness of technology-enhanced teaching and assessment methods of undergraduate preclinical skills in comparison to conventional methods.MethodsA comprehensive search strategy was implemented using both manual and electronic search methods, including PubMed, Wiley, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The search and selection of articles that met the inclusion criteria were carried out in duplicates. A Cochrane data extraction form for RCTs was used to extract the relevant information from all included articles. Risk of bias of all included articles was assessed independently by two authors using the Cochrane risk of bias tool.ResultsA total of 19 randomized controlled clinical trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The majority of the studies included in this review have a high risk of bias mainly due to incomplete data, lack of blinding of the examiners, and due to other biases, such as small sample sizes, not accounting for additional hours of training, and the lack of calibration of examiners grading the preparations. Conflicting results were reported in the included studies with regards to whether there were differences between the intervention and control groups in the outcome measure of quality of students’ performance. A meta-analysis could not be done for this study due to the heterogeneity among the included studies.ConclusionsTechnology-enhanced teaching and assessment tools used in preclinical skills training of undergraduate dental students have the potential to improve students’ performance. However, due to the conflicting outcomes reported in the 19 studies included in this systematic review and their high risk of bias, better quality studies are required to find a definitive answer to the research question of this systematic review.
Highlights
To investigate the effectiveness of technology-enhanced teaching and assessment methods of undergraduate preclinical skills in comparison to conventional methods
According to the American Dental Association (ADA), producing competent dental graduates is an aim that dental schools thrive to achieve [1]
Primary Outcome measure: effectiveness of technologyenhanced assessment tools when compared to conventional assessment tools in terms of minimizing procedural errors Secondary outcome measures: student satisfaction, time taken to complete the preparation Study design: randomized controlled clinical trials Publication dates: No limit on the date of publication was applied
Summary
To investigate the effectiveness of technology-enhanced teaching and assessment methods of undergraduate preclinical skills in comparison to conventional methods. Formative assessment evaluates the learning process of students at any point during the teaching program through methods such as self-reflection, in-course assignments, and course-feedback This improves the quality of learning through understanding of the individual strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, is mainly implemented at the end of a course or program or at strategic stages of a course or a program and may include a variety of assessment methods such as, written exams, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), oral and clinical skills exams While the latter form of assessment can promote motivation through recognition of achievements that the student has obtained, it does not allow for students to reflect on areas that require improvement. It is very important to have a good balance of both forms of assessment, as focusing solely on the summative type may result in lower quality learning, while focusing on the formative type can lead to students not achieving the level of competency required in their course or program [3, 4]
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