ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 has profoundly affected dental undergraduate teaching and assessment. The pandemic resulted in cessation of face-to face teaching and assessment in many countries, with an associated move online. Objective structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), an important modality for clinical assessment in dentistry and medicine, is not possible with pandemic restrictions in place. As a result, interest in virtual objective structured clinical examination (VOSCE) has been revived. Student and staff evaluation of any assessment process is important, where the views of all involved are required in establishment of authenticity. This papers aims to explore and describe the views of undergraduate dental students and staff in relation to VOSCE MATERIALS AND METHOD: Qualitative methods utilising online focus groups and video recording were used in this study. Five focus groups, involving 24 participants were undertaken. RESULTS: Thematic analysis following a deductive semantic approach was carried out resulting in the identification of six themes relating to the VOSCE: VOSCE preconceptions, examination preparation, examination process, fairness, comparison with OSCE and possible improvements. Consideration of these themes, and their interaction, is likely to prove important for optimisation of this assessment modality. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, both staff and students considered the VOSCE a useful and fair examination and a suitable alternative to OSCE. The potential for a number of improvements in the assessment process was identified.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the provision of teaching and assessment on the undergraduate dental programme in many institutions worldwide, and for a prolonged period resulted in the cessation of face-to-face teaching. This resulted in significant changes in the way that didactic and preclinical skills have been taught and required novel thinking to overcome the issues that COVID-19 restrictions presented.Dentistry is a very practical subject and at this institution, the University of Glasgow Dental Hospital and School, we had to quickly develop new ways of teaching that allowed us to cover teaching and assessment of the required Intended Learning Outcomes. This chapter highlights some specific case studies of how adaptations were made to the undergraduate dental teaching program within our institution utilising technology and visualisation to promote this during this turbulent time. These included teaching of head and neck anatomy, teaching of pre-clinical skills in placement of local anaesthetic and dental extraction forceps, communication skills as well as describing a raft of modifications to our assessment programme.Many of these innovations, utilising blended learning methodologies with the use of visualisation, have been transferred into other areas of teaching within the curriculum and will replace older material as we transition out of the pandemic, undoubtedly significantly improving the student experience.