Payal Saxena1, Saurabh Kumar Gupta1, Divya Mehrotra2, Shivam Kamthan3, Husain Sabir4, Pratibha Katiyar5, S V Sai Prasad6. 1. Department of Conservative Dentistry, Government College of Dentistry, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452001, India. 2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, King George's Medical University, Uttar Pradesh, India. 3. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Subharti Medical College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. 4. Raj Multispeciality Centre, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452001, India. 5. Department of Prosthodontics, Career Dental College and Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. 6. Indian Agricultural Research Institute-Regional Station, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Education has largely been digitalized. More so, for professional education, keeping updated in this fast paced world has become a necessary requisite and dentistry has not been left untouched. This cross sectional questionnaire based study aimed to assess the digital literacy and smartphone usage amongst the 260 Central Indian dental students including their perspicacity about smartphone/internet usage for learning purposes. The students' attitude for implementation of digital technology in study programs/education system was also evaluated. METHODS: The questionnaire was distributed among total 260 dental students from different dental institutes of Central India. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Out of 260 students, 250 were internet users, out of which 56% had internet access all time. 94.23% students owned a smartphone. 46.53% (114/245) students had some app related to the dentistry in their smartphone device. The commonest site for surfing related to knowledge seeking was google scholar (72%) followed by Pubmed and others. Nearly 80% dental students believed that social media helps them in their professional course studies. Post graduate students showed statistitically significant difference from undergraduates and interns in terms of knowledge of keywords, dental apps and reading research journals. 89.23% students were keen for implementation of e-learning in their curriculum. CONCLUSION: This study reflects willingness of dental students to adopt digital revolution in dental education which in turn may present an opportunity for educators and policy makers to modify educational methods and thereby advance student's current learning approaches.
OBJECTIVES: Education has largely been digitalized. More so, for professional education, keeping updated in this fast paced world has become a necessary requisite and dentistry has not been left untouched. This cross sectional questionnaire based study aimed to assess the digital literacy and smartphone usage amongst the 260 Central Indian dental students including their perspicacity about smartphone/internet usage for learning purposes. The students' attitude for implementation of digital technology in study programs/education system was also evaluated. METHODS: The questionnaire was distributed among total 260 dental students from different dental institutes of Central India. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Out of 260 students, 250 were internet users, out of which 56% had internet access all time. 94.23% students owned a smartphone. 46.53% (114/245) students had some app related to the dentistry in their smartphone device. The commonest site for surfing related to knowledge seeking was google scholar (72%) followed by Pubmed and others. Nearly 80% dental students believed that social media helps them in their professional course studies. Post graduate students showed statistitically significant difference from undergraduates and interns in terms of knowledge of keywords, dental apps and reading research journals. 89.23% students were keen for implementation of e-learning in their curriculum. CONCLUSION: This study reflects willingness of dental students to adopt digital revolution in dental education which in turn may present an opportunity for educators and policy makers to modify educational methods and thereby advance student's current learning approaches.
Entities:
Keywords:
Dental education; Digital literacy; E-learning; Smartphone
Authors: Tim Robinson; Thomas Cronin; Haider Ibrahim; Mark Jinks; Timothy Molitor; Joshua Newman; Jonathan Shapiro Journal: J Med Syst Date: 2013-03-26 Impact factor: 4.460