Student Response to a Blended Radiology Course: A Multi-Year Study in Dental Education

Abstract

Universities around the world are increasingly moving towards blended learning models to engage their 21st century learners (Alammary et al., 2014; Brenard et al., 2014; Tandoh et al., 2014). However, students’ engagement and satisfaction with blended learning in dental education remain understudied. To address this gap, this study examines the effects of a blended learning approach on students’ satisfaction and engagement within dental hygiene and dentistry oral radiology courses. Thirty-five students participated in a survey designed to measure two main constructs: student engagement (per Fredericks et al., 2005) and student satisfaction (per Owston et al., 2013) with the addition of one student providing interview data on each of these constructs. It was found that students were generally satisfied (67%) with the blended learning course format with 65% of students expressing a preference for the blended format. This finding was complemented by students’ also expressing that they were emotionally engaged (70% engagement score), cognitively engaged (69% engagement score), and behaviourally engaged (61% engagement score). These findings suggest that blended learning may be of benefit to the engagement and satisfaction of dental students’ learning the interpretation of dental radiographs.