Dental students perception of distance education

Abstract

Introduction: The Distance Education (EaD) is characterized as a form of education in which the pedagogical and didactic mediation in the teaching and learning takes place with the use by teachers and students, media and information and communication technology, with the development of educational activities in places or various times. Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of students who was coursing the last Dentistry graduation year about Distance Education (EaD). Method: Is a cross-sectional descriptive exploratory. It was used a self-applied questionnaire as instrument for data collection where it was analyzed variables about students, use of internet and about EaD. Results: Among total, 120 students made part of research (140). The ways pointed for education were post-graduation courses and to read some journals. The daily internet access is performed by 29,2%, only one student said not access the internet. The majority of interviewed people (63,34%) did not know any way of distance education, consequently 97,5% had never participated of distance course and 62,5% also affirmed that they did not know if they coursed it. Conclusion: It was possible to observe that the Dentistry students still had some predjuce the non-traditional educational ways although they used internet. Even existent legislation that gives support for EaD in Brazil, students did not worry with quality and validity of this educational way.

Keywords

• ducación a distancia
• educación en odontología
• educación continua.