Abstract:

Background: In Turkey, with the Covid-19 pandemic, an online education system has been introduced, as is the case all over the world. Since March 2020, dentistry(D) and dental clinic assistant(DCA) students have taken pedodontics lessons online. This research Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Dentistry and dental clinic assistant students aim to evaluate the efficiency of the education given in the online pedodontics course, the student's satisfaction, and the online course system. Methods: In the questionnaire, there are multiple-choice questions about methods of accessing the online education system and access knowledge and skills of students. In addition, various propositions about pedodontics classes were presented to students to be answered with the Likert scale consisting of 1-5, strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, and strongly agree options. This questionnaire was conducted over the internet, with anonymity for the identity of students. IBM SPSS Statistics 25 program was used for statistical evaluations. Results: Survey participated by 88D and 59DCA students 40.1% of students reported that they connected to lessons via their mobile phones and tablets. Statistically, a significant difference was not found between the two groups in terms of difficulty and effort levels in their connection to classes(p=0.622,p=0.348). In the contribution of pedodontics to students' knowledge levels, was found that the knowledge levels of students with easy access to the internet at the beginning and end of lessons were significantly different from those with difficult access(p=0.002). Lecturers' skill level and their competence do not differ significantly according to groups. A statement that watching webinars is more beneficial than online education has been the proposition with the lowest mean score. Conclusions: Dentistry and dental clinic assistant students faced various difficulties adapting to the online education system. This internet and technology-based system caused inequalities in education levels of students, tried to be balanced lecturers. While the pandemic process continues unpredictably, lecturers have a great responsibility to make pedodontics lesson reach their goals fairly.

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