The Effect of Distance Education Conducted during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period on the Psychomotor Skill Development of a Dental School Students.

Purpose: This study compared the development of face-to-face (F2F) psychomotor skills vs. a modified online dental anatomy course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The 9-HPT is regularly applied for the students' psychomotor skill assessment in the Faculty of Dentistry of Süleyman Demirel University. In the 2020-21 academic year, 92.2% of students who took the dental anatomy course in distance education voluntarily participated in this study (observation group). These data were compared with 34.6% of students who applied for 9-HPT in 2019-2020 in F2F education (control group). The Mann-Whitney U test and t-test were used for comparison. The significance level was taken as p < 0.05. Results: Based on the dominant hand 9-HPT score, a positive change occurred in 81.8% of the F2F and 61.6% of the online education students. Based on both dominant and nondominant hand 9-HPT scores, a statistically significant difference between the change in scores according to the fall/spring term measurements was observed in both F2F and distance education (p < 0.001). However, the F2F-educated group students showed better psychomotor skill development than those exposed to the online-educated group in 9-HPT. The results showed statistical significance for both dominant and nondominant hands (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The F2F education is the gold standard in psychomotor skill training; however, in cases where this approach cannot be realized, practical training protocols modified for online training may contribute to the motor development of students.

Evaluation of learning management system in medical education in time of COVID-19

Study Objectives: Learning management systems (LMS) are the most popular educational technology system used in distance education. In our study, it was aimed to evaluate the acceptance levels of Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine students regarding the learning management system. Methods: Learning management system acceptance scale (LMSAS) developed by Sezer was preferred for the study. The scale was delivered to all students online, 941 students expressed their opinions (n: 941). Results: In the analysis of scale scores for all students, performance expectation for students is 22.70 +/- 9.48, effort expectation is 15.50 +/- 5.79, facilitating situations 14.92 +/- 5.61, social impact 6.70 +/- 3.37 and total score. It was measured as 59.84 +/- 21.61. In comparing the preclinic and clinic years, it was seen that there was a statistically significant difference between the preclinical students and the clinical students in both total scores and all sub dimensions. Conclusion: In the analysis of scale scores for all students, performance expectation, effort expectation, facilitating situations, social impact and total score are evaluated at the "medium" level for our students. As a result, we believe that the addition of informative and awareness-raising activities related to the LMS within the education program will increase the students' intention to use a technological innovation in order to improve the acceptance level of the pre-graduate medical education program of the Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine, which has started the distance education process during the COVID-19 pandemic.