TRADITIONAL VERSUS ONLINE TEACHING - A COMPARATIVE STUDY AMONG UNDERGRADUATE BDS STUDENTS

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted with a purpose to determine the perception of dental students toward traditional and online teaching methods. Methods: A validated and structured questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms and the study link of the questionnaire was sent through WhatsApp to all the participants. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part included the demographic information of the students. The second part constituted a pre-validated 16-item questionnaire on the perception of students on traditional and online teaching. The variables, such as interest, convenience, time, motivation, tiredness, distractions, satisfaction, retention, and understanding, were included. A 5-point Likert scale was used for collecting the responses. Descriptive statistics was used for the final analysis and were represented as percentages. Results: Overall response rate was 98.2%. Female preponderance was more compared to male constituting 66%. Mobile (92.9%) was the gadget of preference followed by laptop (6.5%). Majority of students showed a negative inclination toward online teaching. They felt online teaching was less interesting, less motivating, with more distraction, low satisfaction, and lacked interaction. Meanwhile, they agreed that online teaching was more comfortable, cost-effective, and less time-consuming. Most of the students (63.1%) opted for a mixed method of teaching. Conclusion: Both traditional and online methods have advantages and disadvantages at some levels. Mixed approach can be tried for better results.