Evaluation of endodontic competency in the COVID‐19 era: Problem, solution and results

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the education of the graduating class of 2020. The challenge of teaching hand skills was never easy. These unprecedent times have added an additional layer to the task. How can endodontic procedures be taught and how can competency be measured remotely? How to cite this article: Alon E, Amato R. Evaluation of endodontic competency in the COVID-19 era: Problem, solution and results.

Dental Education in the COVID-19 Era: Challenges, Solutions and Oppor- tunities

“…After the implementation of the lockdown measures, the sudden halt in academic and clinical activities necessitated each dental college to promptly re-evaluate its capacities in multiple dimensions and creatively explore available options to determine the nature of curricular modifications that would be feasible and successful [18 -20]. Then, prompt implementation and execution were required to ensure the uninterrupted remote delivery of curricular content [18,19]. Naturally, faculty and students were required to swiftly adapt to the implemented changes, which in many cases meant a completely virtual dental curriculum [2,11,20,21].…”

“…Some of these training tools also require significant technical and logistic support that is difficult to provide for home use. Unfortunately, these practical and clinical activities requiring the demonstration of competencies, which were dramatically reduced in the modified curricular plans, occupy the bulk of the overall training requirements in the field of dentistry [19]. Some colleges resumed practical simulationbased training on campus while practicing social-distancing measures [11].…”

“…There is a common agreement that greater efforts should be made to compensate for lost clinical time and allow students to receive adequate hands-on training before graduation [19]. Dental colleges have been striving to offer alternatives that may reduce the negative impact of losing hands-on training in laboratories and clinical encounters during the lockdown while at the same time ensuring the safety of everyone involved.…”

“…Dental colleges have been striving to offer alternatives that may reduce the negative impact of losing hands-on training in laboratories and clinical encounters during the lockdown while at the same time ensuring the safety of everyone involved. Procedural videos and case-based discussions using clinically based scenarios are important tools employed for this purpose [10,16,19,22,26]. Teledentistry is also an important tool that has been utilized by many colleges, when appropriate, to compensate for lost clinical time and canceled external rotations [16,23].…”

“…To increase the security of online assessment tools, third-party proctoring, identity authentication and automated plagiarism detection have been utilized by many institutions. [11,27] Despite its questionable validity, online assessment is a practical alternative to face-to-face exams [19]. The online assessment is cost-effective and facilitates student attendance from various geographic locations [27].…”