Top of the pops--CD-ROM and DVDs in dental education.

In many ways the CD-ROM was the first digital teaching aid, the precursor of what was to develop into e-learning. Launched in the mid-1980s, its first educational application was as a storage medium for reference material. Since then the list of its uses has grown as has its storage capacity, ability to hold data in different formats - text, audio image and video - and its interactive properties have allowed developers to produce discs which enhance both the processes and enjoyment of teaching and learning. In this article the stages involved in production of an educational CD-ROM, typical content and the benefits are considered, prior to a review of a number discs that have been used in dental education. The varied titles reveal how versatile CD-ROMs can be. They range from a course showing students the importance of good patient communications and how to achieve them, to an in-depth exposition in the 'Head and Neck Anatomy' disc, a subject important not just for dentistry, but for other medical disciplines as well. The last section of this article considers a study undertaken amongst its students by the Open University, which investigated the effectiveness of CD-ROM in education. In conclusion, it can be said that although the CD-ROM format is a versatile, popular and valuable aid, with the emergence of DVD it may soon be seen as 'old technology' and replaced by the newer format.