Perception of Undergraduate Dental Students about Use of Smartphones in Dentistry: An Efficient Teaching-Learning Tool During Covid – 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Health care has transformed intensely with the Digital Era. Smartphone is one of the digital tools which change the traditional way of teaching-learning nowadays. There is the widespread use of Smartphones as a part of the ‘Learning Management System’ in dental healthcare. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, regular classroom and clinical educational activities for dental students were almost disturbed globally. ‘WHO Guidelines’, appeal to everyone to stop the spread of pandemic by maintaining social distancing. As per the Government and University guidelines, colleges must continue education through an online platform so that students should not be deprived of education. As this current situation is unpredictable, Smartphones are routinely used by many students to continue digital education. Therefore the perception of students on the usage of Smartphones as an easily available efficient teaching-learning tool in dentistry is the need of the hour. So, the aim of the study was to assess the perception of undergraduate dental students about the use of Smartphones in dentistry as an efficient teaching-learning tool during COVID – 19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was carried out at VSPM Dental College and Research Centre, Nagpur. Pre-validated questionnaires were provided to the dental undergraduate students containing 14 closed-ended questions and one open-ended question among approximately 500 students through Google Form. 99% of students used smartphones for e-learning. Smartphones are convenient and easily accessible devices during this pandemic situation to continue teaching and learning. Smartphones in dentistry are really an efficient digital teaching-learning tool during COVID – 19 pandemic situations.