Nazlee Sharmin

There is a growing interest in educational innovations across higher education. However, instructors’ lack of knowledge, motivation, and concerns about increased workload hinder the implementation of such new offerings. Open educational resources can promote educational innovations. Yet, their availability and use in dental and dental hygiene education are minimal. A large set of interactive digital learning artefacts was created for dental and dental hygiene students by faculty at a Canadian university. This learning content is curated and archived in a freely available database, EdTech Cache; 46% of the content is focused on biochemistry, 28% on oral biology, and 23% on biomedical foundations. Students can filter the database based on subject area and keywords to find learning activities to supplement their studies. Educators can also use EdTech Cache to create an interactive and engaging classroom experience. EdTech Cache can benefit students and educators across health sciences education.

Background: With advancements in the fields of treatment, diagnosis, and genomics, knowledge of cellular biochemistry is becoming increasingly crucial for oral health professionals. However, dental students often feel demotivated to study foundational-level biochemistry because they are overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of the material and fail to recognize its relevance to dental practice. To address this, we developed a focused, self-directed assignment for 1 ^st -year Dental Hygiene (DH) students to enhance their understanding of protein structure and underscore the application of this knowledge in dental practice. Methods: The assignment was developed in quiz-style using Google Forms and integrated into a foundational-level biochemistry course as a supplementary activity. The activity included follow-up questions asking students about their perceived accomplishments and confidence in understanding protein structure and function. A descriptive study was conducted to explore students’ perceptions of the assignment and its impact on their understanding of protein structure and function. Students’ anonymous responses to the follow-up questions and their performance on the assignment were analyzed for the study. Descriptive statistics were calculated from the data using Microsoft Excel. Results: Although the assignment was not mandatory, 86% of the class (n = 25) completed it, achieving an average score of 6.04 out of 10. Sixty percent of participants (n = 15) reported improved knowledge of protein structure-function relationships, and 48% (n = 12) indicated that completing the assignment helped them understand how a simple change in protein sequence can lead to significant changes in protein structure and function. Conclusion: While the assignment included a limited number of follow-up questions, which restricted our ability to explore student perceptions in detail, it demonstrates the potential of a well-designed, interactive, case-based assignment to stimulate student motivation by highlighting the relevance and application of biochemistry content in the future dental profession.

Introduction: This paper describes Doctor of Dental Surgery students' perspectives on participating in NPAL sessions at the School of Dentistry at the University of Alberta. NPAL provides early clinical experiences (ECE) for junior students (mentees) assisted by senior students (mentors). Method: A convergent, parallel mixed method of concurrently collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data was used. Junior students completed daily forms and a written reflective assignment. Senior students completed an end‐of‐year survey and participated in a focus group. Results: Most junior students found their NPAL sessions useful and their interactions with senior peers very positive. Benefits included an enhanced sense of the importance of patient care and the opportunity to apply concepts in practice. Senior students appreciated the collegiality and support provided by the mentees. The majority of senior students reported that their NPAL experiences as mentees themselves during the early years of the program helped with their transition to fully immersive comprehensive patient care in the third year. Recommendations for improvement included ensuring all mentees are exposed to a wide range of patient cases and have more opportunities to perform procedures. Conclusion: ECE using NPAL enabled junior students to become comfortable in the clinical environment and perform simple procedures on patients as their skill set developed. Senior students also benefited from the experiences as they provided opportunities to develop mentorship and leadership skills. This strategy may be useful for other institutions interested in implementing early clinical experiences to ease the pre‐clinical–clinical transition for students.

Background: Games are well recognized for enhancing student engagement, yet most reported game‐based interventions in higher education remain limited to single, one‐time activities. Comprehensive integration of gaming concepts across an entire course is still uncommon, particularly in health professional education. Approach: In this context, a game‐based strategy was embedded into an entire dental hygiene (DH) course using a gated pathway and rewards. In a real game, a gated pathway requires players to complete specific tasks before unlocking the next level. In the learning management system (LMS), the same game‐based concept was applied by restricting students' access to weekly content until they completed reviewing lecture materials and passed a quiz. Successful completion of the quiz unlocked the next week's materials. Quiz games designed in Gimkit were integrated as rewards for students. Evaluation: Student engagement data were collected from the LMS, and exam performance was compared with the previous cohort, where no gated pathway was used. Voluntary, anonymous surveys captured students' perceptions. Eighty‐eight percent of the survey respondents agreed that the gated pathway helped them complete their tasks on time, and 87% found this intervention helpful for their studies. Implications: This study demonstrates the successful integration of game‐based concepts across a full DH course, with positive effects on engagement and performance. Clinical educators can adapt this approach to offer students a better learning experience in a game‐like course.

Implication Statement The benefits of quiz-based games for education are well-recognized. Educators often struggle to find games that are suitably tailored to their students' needs and easy to use. Gimkit, a new platform, allows instructors to create quiz games and host them in class. Based on student feedback and the literature, we developed a game mode for dental students called Save Our School (SOS) which is publicly available on the Gimkit Creative platform. Educators in the health professions can use this game to foster student engagement and perform formative assessments in their classes.

Purpose Evidence-based practice (EBP) is increasingly emphasized across various health care professions, including dental hygiene. The purpose of this study was to evaluate dental hygiene (DH) student attitudes toward utilizing research and EBP through the introduction of a literature review assignment as part of the education program.Methods A descriptive study was conducted to explore third year dental hygiene students' (n=48) perceptions of a research-based literature review assignment as part of an oral biology course. The assignment included a multiple choice and a reflective question examining students' perceptions of the activity. Descriptive statistics and manifest content analysis were used to analyze the data.Results A majority (96.0%, n=46) of the class responded to the reflective question survey. Three fourths of the participants (74.0%, n=34) stated that the literature review assignment helped them integrate and expand what they learned in the classroom. Content analysis generated 22 codes that were compiled into eight subcategories and then condensed into four categories. The participants perceived four main impacts of the literature review assignment on their learning experiences: bridging theory and practice, improved and engaged learning experiences, personal and professional development, and positive attitude towards research.Conclusion Although the study findings are based on one cohort of DH students, they demonstrated the emergence of a positive attitude among students towards research because of completing the literature review assignment. Future research should aim to explore the perceptions and attitudes of faculty members and diverse student populations towards research-based assignments embedded in the DH curriculum.

M-Learning is gaining popularity in health professional education; however, reports on mobile apps targeting didactic teaching and learning are scarce, particularly in the context of health professional courses such as histology. Histology is an essential foundational component of dental and medical education. At the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, instructors utilize photomicrographs from textbooks to teach students on the microanatomy of teeth, the development of tooth and facial regions, and developmental anomalies. Limited availability of high-quality tissue sections and time constraints present challenges for both students and instructors. To provide students with an accessible collection of diverse histological sections and to facilitate in-class interactive didactic teaching, we developed an Augmented Reality (AR)-based mobile app called Tooth ARcademy. The development of Tooth ARcademy comprises the following steps: selecting histology glass slides, digitizing the glass slides, curating and annotating the digital slides, preparing multiple-choice questions, and integrating the resources into the mobile app. Tooth ARcademy is available worldwide at no cost. The app has three modes. Instructors can use the AR-based Learn mode to create in-class activities and supplemental questions tailored to students with specific learning outcomes. The Practice mode enables students to study oral histology outside of class time. With the Quiz mode of Tooth ARcademy, students can self-assess their knowledge of oral histology by participating in quizzes. The knowledge of oral histology is essential for dental education. Tooth ARcademy is designed to create interactive and engaging learning environments both inside and outside the classroom. Besides some limitations of the current phase, Tooth ARcademy can be a valuable m-learning tool that benefits students and educators in dental, medical, and other professional schools.