As higher education institutions adopt teaching technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning, dedicated research capacity must be supported to allow for evidence-based decisions surrounding the use of innovative technologies to improve effective teaching and learning. This study aims to address the gap by evaluating how innovative technologies directly affect student learning in terms of both hard and soft measures of learning and engagement.
Previous research that focused on technology and direct student learning outcomes and student engagement, provided a foundation to build on for the current study.1 Our study focused on identifying specific technology tools that enhance dental hygiene and dentistry student learning during COVID-19. Three important needs drove our research: first, and foremost, to find an effective way of putting course material online that improves teaching by transitioning from in-person lectures to online learning, while also enhancing students' learning experience. Second, to help address issues that dental hygiene and dental administrators are currently facing - finding ways of economizing the access to scarce experts whose expertise is becoming more of a demand at many dental hygiene and dental schools globally as fewer experts are accepting academic careers.2 The ultimate goal is to maximize specialists' skills on the clinical floor while ensuring that their students receive a quality education in lecture halls and preclinical laboratories.3 Thirdly, we aim to tackle the present and upcoming obstacles of education in the context of pandemics like COVID-19.
Our students spend numerous hours in lecture theatres and pre-clinic laboratories learning the theories and clinical techniques required to apply to clients/patients. In this age of modern dental hygiene and dentistry practice, with many state-of-the-art technologies used in clinics (i.e., electronic patient records, cone-beam scanners, etc.), teaching students relies heavily on in-person lectures.4 This is surprising in that innovative technologies are improving the effectiveness and quality of teaching such as telecommunications services,5 communications or social software,6 rich media in interactive training and learning,7 webcasts,8 and podcasts,9 virtual learning environments,10 sophisticated communications,11 and virtual reality with haptic devices.12 Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions were slower and more methodical about adopting innovative technologies to improve the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning and if used, were implemented without fully considering their potential benefit for teaching and learning.3 Pre-pandemic research in this area focuses on the benefits of innovative technologies and demonstrates indirect benefits for teaching and learning, relying more on perceptions of students’ and teachers’ satisfaction 13 and student self-reports such as attitudes, satisfaction, and interest, and perceptions of learning and engagement,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 rather than hard measures of student learning outcomes.3 As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, dental and dental hygiene educators were forced to adapt quickly to remote learning.53, 54 This meant implementing technology in the classroom in ways that had never been done before. However, there was little evidence-based research to support the use of this technology in such a drastic manner. 54, 55 One solution to move learning from the classroom to online, involves converting lecture content into online learning modules using voice-over PowerPoint presentations.1 A 2016 study that looked at voice-over PowerPoint presentations found that students benefitted from this content delivery format as assessed through recognition and recall.1 However, students’ engagement in the content material was somewhat limited. What was missing was an online learning process that provided a full suite of various ways of presenting course content that engages students’ different learning preferences.56, 57, 58 Learning preferences include verbal or linguistic, auditory, visual or spatial, and kinesthetic or physical.59 Incorporating online content that caters to different learning preferences may enhance the overall learning experience for students. This approach is believed to effectively engage students and provide them with a significant learning experience.
This study aimed to assess various innovative technologies’ direct and indirect impact on student learning regarding engagement, retention, and recall. A comparison was made between a traditional face-to-face lecture on nonverbal communication and an online module on the same topic, which involved different online learning formats known to support the various learning preferences. Both teaching conditions were compared regarding their impact on student hard and soft learning measures. Hard measures included student engagement, recall and retention immediately after and six months after the presentation. Soft measures included student perceptions of learning such as comfort learning from online vs. traditional lecture, comfort with learning through technology, whether technology enhances their learning, satisfaction with the teaching method, perceptions of success and control over their learning, and three assessments of student engagement: behavioural, emotional, and intellectual.