Abstract

Background: Synchronous course allows building a dental learning atmosphere that is closer to traditional classroom environments and allows dental students to communicate comprehensively with lecturers through video conferencing. Purpose: In this study we explored dental students’ opinions of online lecture using video conferencing as the facility used in synchronous lecture e-learning. Methods: Data was collected using a questionnaire and the results showed that most respondents thought that video conferencing could be useful as the main facility to support distance dental education and flexible learning. Results: All respondents suggested that lecturers must prepare online lectures well before video conferencing and assisted by technicians to prepare various technical aspects to make online lectures run smoothly. From filling out the questionnaire, some advantages and disadvantages of using video conferencing as an educational facility have been revealed. The advantage of this facility is the improvement of students’ self-confidence, achievement of the independence of lecture space and time, high accessibility to educational contents, and intensive interaction between lecturers and students. The quiz scores showed insignificant difference between the online lecture and classical “face to face” class. Conclusions: students perceive that online lectures using video conferencing are very useful in synchronous disseminating knowledge in dental education with several notes for quality improvement.

Key words: earning, information technology, online pedagogy and digital learning