Investigating the role of internet-based educational application in the dental sciences

Abstract

Objective: The study intended to identify the significance of the online information retrieval system (IRS) in evidence-based dentistry (EBD). Thus, the researchers apply a set of pre-and post-tests to evaluate the current knowledge of clinicians and students on online IRS. Materials and Methods: The researchers followed repeated measure design in this study. They applied random sampling technique for conducting pre-and post-test assessment. Five scenarios based EBD were developed to evaluate the performance of the participants. The researchers employed two phases in order to achieve the study's objective. In the first phase, 98 clinicians and 70 students were invited to attend three out of five clinical scenarios using IRS. In the second phase, the participants were invited to participate in a 15-min lecture presented by the researchers on the searching strategies and guidelines to apply keywords for searching the evidence using IRS. A significant level of p < 0.05 was obtained from the statistical analysis using the SPSS program version 16. Results: Of the 98 clinicians, only 37 responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 37.8 %. On the other hand, out of 70 students, 23 responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 32.8 %. In the pre-test, clinicians and students correctly answered 58.3 % of scenario questions. However, the data analysis outcome revealed that only 40.5 % of participants provided a relevant evidence source after an internet search. The students spent an average of 9 min to complete the task, whereas clinicians spent 16 min. After the completion of the lecture, 23 students and clinicians responded to the pre-test, whereas 10 responded to the post-test. Most students believed that the lecture was helpful and recommended similar types of lectures to be presented in the curriculum. The study findings highlight that the percentage of evidence provided in the ''pre-test'' was 60 %, which was improved in the post-test to 73.3 %. Conclusion: The experimental outcome suggests that internet-based educational applications enhance students' learning strategies. Additionally, the IRS supports clinicians in retrieving effective materials for treating their patients. Furthemore, there is a demand for extracurricular activity to improve the search strategies of clinicians and students to strengthen EBD.