A study of videoconferencing for postgraduate continuing education in dentistry in the UK – the teachers’ view

Abstract

Videoconferencing is an established method for providing medical education over long distances. Our aims were to assess the feasibility of videoconferencing in dental postgraduate education, to evaluate its practicability, teacher satisfaction and evaluate equipment. Twenty-seven teachers from the 4 London Dental Schools provided 41 postgraduate dental education sessions on a range of topics to regional postgraduate centres and dental practices as part of the Thames Health Region's programme. Videoconferencing was carried out using a relatively inexpensive personal computer system link using ISDN2 telephone lines and Z350 protocol. Presenter views and assessment were obtained by questionnaire, interview and videotape. Teachers felt that minimal additional preparation time was required for videoconferencing and 21/27 preferred it to in-person teaching, most noting the saving in travel time. Only 3 of the teachers were dissatisfied with their ability to communicate, 4 were equivocal and 20 were either pleased or very pleased. The teachers largely enjoyed the experience and performed well in the new medium. However, sound quality proved inadequate in 5/41 links and most sessions included some periods of suboptimal sound. Only 4 teachers were satisfied with their ability to perform question and answer interaction with the audience. We conclude that experienced teachers adapt readily to videoconferencing and learn to communicate effectively very quickly. Teachers were positive about the medium despite its shortcomings and improvements in sound quality would allow a rapid expansion of postgraduate dental education by videoconference.

Postgraduate medical education in paediatric surgery: videoconferencing—a possible solution for Africa?

“…The lessons learned in this project are similar to the experience of others [14], particularly the need to have coordinators at the distant sites who arrange the venue booking, establish connection, troubleshoot any problems that may arise and maintain the equipment.…”

“…The use of videoconferencing for residency training has been reported in several disciplines in Canada [10], the United Kingdom [14], United States [15], Italy [16], Brazil [17], and India [18] and it has been widely used for continuing medical education [19]. The knowledge increment of trainees on this programme, of which the videoconferenced sessions are one element, has been previously assessed and the teaching method validated [20].…”

Use of videoconferencing for consultation in dental prosthetics and oral rehabilitation

“…The use of teleconsultation also resulted in a greater interactivity between specialist and general practitioners, so most of the consultations can be seen as a learning experience. 4,9,10 A major challenge in teledental consultation is to set up the service in such a way that it is cost-effective. One way to achieve this is to train nursing staff so that they can be the participating party in the consultation process in the dental clinic, freeing the dentist to perform other duties.…”

Aceptación de la videoconferencia en línea sincrónica como método de enseñanza entre estudiantes de ortodoncia / Acceptance of Synchronic Online Videoconference as a Teaching Method by Postdoctoral Residents in Orthodontics

“…Además, cuando se evalúa la preferencia de los estudiantes para hacer una discusión a larga distancia con el profesor, ellos reportan como primera opción la videoconferencia o videollamada que utiliza audio y video, y como segunda opción prefieren la teleconferencia en el que se utiliza un sistema de audio para establecer la comunicación a distancia (19). Por otro lado, desde la perspectiva de los profesores de posgrado (posdoctorado), ellos parecen estar adaptados a este estilo de enseñanza cuando tienen mucha experiencia y tienen una buena actitud hacia el método a pesar de los pequeños problemas (20). Finalmente, se ha sugerido para este tipo de educación manejar grupos pequeños de estudiantes para obtener mejores resultados (26).…”