Project Investigator(s): Batoul Shariati, Professor, Faculty of Dentistry; Afsaneh Sharif, Senior Instructional Designer, CTLT
Project Description
This project is aimed to assess the changes made on the course content and delivery methods along with developing appropriate assessment tool for evaluating students’ assignment reports in an on-line Oral Epidemiology course offered to UBC dental hygiene students. We proposed an action research model to examine the effect of the reconstruction.
Research Questions
1. Does the inclusion of hands-on practice with statistical software enhance statistical competency?
2. Can integration of statistical and epidemiological topics earlier on impact dental hygiene students’ learning outcomes?
3. Are students more competent on “communication”, “collaboration”, and “research use” after receiving the revised course?
4. Does “critical thinking” skill of students improve receiving the revised course?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
If this project is successful it will continue to be implemented in UBC-DHDP and may be transferable to other online offerings. We will disseminate our course design ideas and indicators of success with other dental-hygiene and health profession educators. Currently no statistical course is taught to dental undergraduate students in the Faculty of Dentistry. If this course proves successful and reliable, it will be considered for inclusion in the DMD curriculum. Our success can also be shared with educators from domains such as population health.
Achieved Outcomes
“We found which areas were challenging in learning statistics and epidemiology and in which areas the students were more confident. We also learned that providing students with more space to absorb learning, increasing interactivity, providing timely feedback, peer assessment on team reports, and integrating applicable exercises using statistical software resulted in an enhanced learning environment.”