Animated videos are being increasingly incorporated into health professions education, but evidence is limited and mixed regarding their educational impact. We have been providing dental students with complimentary access to whiteboard animated videos on a web-based and mobile learning platform. This exploratory study evaluated first-year predoctoral dental students’ (n = 143) adoption, perceived value, and impact of the videos as supplementary learning resources in basic sciences. Students were surveyed about their perceived value of the videos, while the host website platform analytics captured video watching patterns. Regression analyses examined the correlation between video watching and students’ exam performance. Results showed that the mean score of students’ perceived value of the videos was 3.2 on a 4-point scale. The class watched a total of 10, 919 videos throughout the academic year. The number of videos watched by individual students ranged from 0 to 627. Video watching was positively correlated with students’ exam performance in biochemistry and nutrition. These findings suggested that students had a favorable attitude towards the animated videos. They frequently used the videos to supplement their learning in basic sciences, but usage varied among individual students. Factors impacting the effectiveness of animated videos such as the complexity of cognitive processing, students’ personal differences, and video watching strategies were discussed and future directions were proposed. The study contributed to the literature of whiteboard animated videos in the understudied context of dental education. Experience from our school could help other institutions identify and implement animated videos to augment student learning.
Purpose Research has demonstrated that learners who practice self‐testing have superior long‐term retention compared to those rereading the material alone, a phenomenon called test‐enhanced learning. This testing effect can be leveraged by spacing out the testing practice over time, a technique called spaced repetition. In 2017, we provided dental students at the school with access to Osmosis, a web‐based platform that supports test‐enhanced learning and spaced repetition through flashcards. This exploratory study examined students’ adoption of self‐testing with flashcards and its impact on learning performance in basic sciences. Methods Participants were 143 first‐year predoctoral students at a dental school in the US. The platform analytics revealed the number of flashcards students answered throughout the first academic year (2019–2020). Regression analyses examined how self‐testing with flashcards impacted students’ exam scores in basic sciences. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests examined the difference in students’ exam performance among the non, minimal, occasional, and regular flashcard users who answered 0, 1–99, 100–499, and over 500 flashcards, respectively. Results Students answered 82,766 flashcards during the year. Additionally, they created 17,973 flashcards using the platform's flashcard authoring tool. Regression analyses showed that self‐testing with flashcards correlated positively with students’ exam performance in anatomy, biochemistry, nutrition, and physiology. ANOVA results revealed a statistically significant difference in students’ exam performance in anatomy, biochemistry, and nutrition among the four groups. Conclusions This study is the first in dental education to examine students’ self‐testing on the Osmosis platform. Results revealed that there was widespread adoption of self‐testing with flashcards. The study provided additional evidence to support the value of self‐testing for dental students. It has practical implications of how test‐enhanced learning can be incorporated into dental education to support student learning. The study contributed to the test‐enhanced learning literature in dental education, an area that has been underexplored.
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