Interactive learning content to supplement didactic lectures in dental education

Students studying in Dentistry and Dental Hygiene Programs receive a significant portion of their dental education through didactic lectures. Although the recent rise of curricular transformations in dental schools aims to improve students’ learning experiences by introducing innovative teaching techniques and technologies,1, 2 in most cases, the didactic lectures remain in their traditional format, lacking opportunities for active learning. We have created a series of interactive HTML5 learning content using H5P to supplement foundational science didactic lectures in the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) program at the University of Alberta. H5P is a plugin tool that facilitates the creation and distribution of various interactive learning content. Three types of HTML5 content were created for DDS students: (i) Drag and Drop images or words; (ii) Fill in the Blank by dragging the words; and (iii) Dialogue Card. “Drag and Drop” activities enable students to drag items (text or images) and drop them in their correct position to get scored (Figure 1A,B). Fill in the Blank activities let students complete a sentence by dragging the appropriate words from a given set of “word collections” (Figure 1C,D). Dialogue Cards are two-sided flashcards that allow students to practice and strengthen their knowledge of concepts. One side of the digital flashcard contains a question, image, and /or key concepts. The other side of the same card has the answer to the question. Students can turn the card by clicking it and report if the answer was correct or incorrect. The Dialogue Card activity keeps track of the correct and incorrect answers. In the next turn, the cards with previous incorrect performance will appear more frequently than the accurate performance (Figure 2). First-year DDS students were invited to participate in a survey to assess (i) the perceived impact of H5P content on students’ learning and (ii) what features of H5P content are most appreciated by the students. The Research Ethics Board of the University of Alberta has approved this study (ID: Pro00117742). Forty-seven percent of the first-year dentistry class (n = 15) participated in the voluntary anonymous survey. Hundred percent of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that the H5P content made learning easier and enjoyable and impacted the learning experience in a positive way (Figure 3A). All participants affirmed that the H5P contents enabled them to self-assess their learning and would like to see similar content in other aspects of their studies. The features of H5P content most appreciated by the students were that they helped them self-assess their learning, were interactive, and helped clarify concepts (Figure 3B). Descriptive student comments also showed their enthusiasm and willingness to have similar interactive content in other aspects of their learning (Figure 3C). Technology in didactic teaching promotes active learning and student engagement.3 We have identified the benefits of incorporating interactive HTML5 content in didactic learning to make education more enjoyable and interactive for dental students. The authors of this study declared no conflict of interest. This work was supported by a School of Dentistry Education Research Fund grant.

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