In recent years, dental education has experienced a general shift toward an increased technology presence in education delivery and learning.This research examines the student-perceived efficacy of a blended learning approach (mixture of online content and face-to-face instruction) in a predoctoral periodontics curriculum to teach a new periodontal classification scheme to dental students in clinical training.Methods: Participants were recruited from third-and fourth-year predoctoral periodontal classes at the University of Washington School of Dentistry. Students were administered a live lecture introducing the new classification system and given access to an online module with built in case quizzes and interactive activities. Upon completing the module, students were given a post-module survey to assess learning preferences, utilization of various learning methods, and studentperceived efficacy of blended learning. Results:In a study group of 69 predoctoral dental students, the online module was the most preferred (52.2% ranked first) and utilized learning method for students (p < 0.001). Over 80% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they enjoyed using it and found it more effective than traditional lecture alone. Traditional lecture was preferred by 31.9% of students, and no students ranked the assigned reading as their first choice of learning method (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate higher student preference, utilization, and self-perceived efficacy of blended learning as compared to traditional assigned readings and lectures -supporting blended learning as a promising educational approach for predoctoral dental education.
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