Use of the Blackboard online learning environment for

collaborative, self-directed projects

David DymockSenior Lecturer in Oral Microbiology

Chairman, Dental Education Committee

Plan of talk

• The ‘old’ BDS curriculum– Special study elements

• Library projects• Online projects

• The ‘new’ BDS curriculum– Research concepts,

methodologies and project

Structure of the ‘old’ Bristol BDS programme Year 1 2 3 4 5 Weeks 30 30 42 42 42

Introductory fortnight Oral anatomy, biochemistry, physiology Human disease Oral

disease

Basic Medical Pathology & (O med,path,micro,rad)

Sciences Microbiology (OMFS) Anatomy Pharmacology

Biochemistry

Physiology Biomaterials Science

Basic Dental Techniques Advanced

Elective

Dentist in society

Law & ethics Dental pub health, health/society

BLS ILS

Introduction to Clinical dentistry

Individual clinical teaching logbooks

Topic teachingTopic teaching

Clinical Practice in teaching divisions *:CDH, Restorative, OMFS & Oral Med,Path & Micro

Credit Diploma BMSc BDS

Continuum

of

Dental

Education

Didactic teaching – teaching divisions *

outreachoutreach

A & EA & E

2nd BDS 3rd BDS Final BDS I Final BDS II

Continuous assessment

Special Study Elements

ElectiveElective

Special Study Element choices

• Modern Language– Spanish– French – Italian– German

• British Sign Language• Project

– Laboratory– Library– Blackboard online projects

Library projects

Using Blackboard

Online assessment

Feedback Timetables

Reading

Storing information, pro-formas, etc

Presentations

Communication

WWW links

Constructing online projects • Utilise Blackboard facilities to ‘run’ the project

– Self-explanatory structure within bespoke project sites

– E-mail– WWW links– Discussion board– Digital dropbox– Feedback

• Require 3-6 students– Encourage both independent study and teamwork– Each individual benefits from efforts of others in

the project group

• Offer different topics– Dental plaque (DD)– Oral cancer (Angela Hague)

Disclosed

Microbiology and dentistry

Dental plaque can lead to disease

Caries

Health Gingivitis

Periodontitis

Learning about dental plaque in the BDS programme

• Year 1– General Biochemistry

• Year 2– Oral Biology

• Years 3-5– Clinically-orientated teaching units

Marketing the project• Presented at Year 2 introductory lectures• Registered all students before SSE

choices made• Provided detailed information within site

Project tasks

1. Each student to read and review a paper relating to dental plaque on a fortnightly basis

2. Submit reviews to discussion board and digital dropbox

3. Read and comment on reviews by others• Repeat tasks 1, 2 & 3 six times 4. Provide a PowerPoint presentation to the

group• Assistance provided through the site

The Discussion Board

• Review submission• Communication

– Asking and answering questions

– Making comments– Providing links to relevant

documents/internet links

• Filing cabinet

Completing the project• 2004-05

– 3 students– 18 papers reviewed– 3 oral presentations– 3 reports– 2 merits, 1 pass– Feedback obtained

• 2005-06– 4/5 students completed– 27 papers reviewed– 4 oral presentations provided– 1 distinction, 3 merits– Feedback obtained

What did you feel were the benefits of choosing the Dental Plaque

Project? • Student 1

• I flet more responsable for the ammount of work I did. Rather than being forced to hand work in (lots of 2nd & 3rdBDS felt like being at school again), you worked because you had an interest in the subject and were pretty much left to get on with it.

• Constant use of athens and pubmed trained us how to get the best out of these resources, therefore aiding other projects I have done since.

• Student 2• Not only was the project

interesting with the oppurtunity to explore areas of personal interest in the particular area, it also benefited us all in the oral biochemistry element of 3rdBDS. The discussion board was used well and was noted by all as being a very valuble tool for the future. Also it was of enormous beefit to gain experience using online journals. This made the oral physiology library project research finding really straight forward.

What did you feel were the benefits of choosing the Dental Plaque

Project? • Student 3• The freedom to choose the

subjects to read up on made this unit unique to the rest of the course, it allowed me to read up on subjects that I was interested in. The main benifit to me was at the end of it I could read and summerise papers,and this has already helped with other subjects.

• Student 4• really useful to learn how to

search on the multiple databases, very useful for the phys lib project later in the 2nd year.

• Student 4 (ctd)• also learned how ot be critical

about information of papers...in essence thinking a little about whay was written,. not just accepting it as gospel. 

• o and i widened my base of awareness of dental plaque..will be useful in coming years im sure

• i was able to get on with research and writing on my own, i didnt need to go to a class room at such and such a time. i like this independence. the deadlines were there so i worked to them at my own pace.

What did you feel were the possible disadvantages of choosing this

project? • The other subjects for SSE allowed the students to get away

from dentistry which could be seen as a refreshing break. • One could not have the oppurtunity to explore a new subject

such as sign language. I haven't had the oppurtunity to do this before and it would have been interesting.

• i didnt think there were any

To what extent did the project improve written skills?

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Not improved Onlymarginallyimproved

A goodchance toimprove

An excellentway to

improve

2004-05

2005-06

To what extent do you think the project serves to improve oral communication skills?

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Not improved Only marginallyimproved

A good chanceto improve

An excellentway to improve

2004-05

2005-06

To what extent the project help develop skills in using computer software and searching for relevant material?

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Nothing gained I learned a fewthings that might use

in future

I learned a lot

2004-05

2005-06

Feedback – improving transferable skills

How did you find the work load?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Too little About right A bit too much Too much

2004-05

2005-06

How well did the project facilitate learning related to the Dental Course?

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Not really that wellintegrated

Didn't integrate thatwell

Linked well toaspects

2004-05

2005-06

Feedback – workload, BDS linkage

Did you feel that the assessment of the project and marking scheme used

reflected the work put into the various components?

• Pretty spot on in my opinion

• I would have prefered a little more weight towards the presentation (including the acual delivery). Other than that distrubution of marks seemed fine

• I found it difficult to find something intelligent to say about each of the other peoples papers and I dont think it reflected the time spent reading them but it was worth while.

• the comments on the disscusion board were to highly weighted and the presentation too lightly weighted.

Did the Blackboard site give you the information you required to successfully complete your work for the project? If

not, please provide suggestions for change.

• yes it did

• The only problems that I encounted through the project were:– My own time management (my fault)

– Nasty journals wanting $30 for a paper.

– I dont think that these could be solved so no.

• yes it did

• it was fine, and the links were very useful

What did you think of the help and instruction given by the lecturer? Were there specific areas

where more assistance or advice would have been beneficial? How useful were the group

meetings? • meeting were useful as they were only really to see how we

were gettinh along and to jolt us into doing a bit more work here and there. help and advice given was helpful.

• Group meeting were of good use. Made sure we were all singing off the same hymn sheet and they addressed any problems we had.

• The few group meetings we had were helpful but were short so walking in for them and nothing else on occasions were inconvenient.

• Dr Dymock watched over the project offered advice and suggestions when needed. But pretty much left us to get on with it. I think we all appreciated this approach. If there are other ways of getting papers for free that would have been useful. 

If you have any other comments on the Dental Plaque project or possible future use of

Blackboard for similar literature-based and discussion board-reported projects on a wider

range of dentistry-related topics please provide them below.

• I think this project was really useful to dentists (a lot more than being able ask for shoes in german) and was the best choice for the open unit. I gained a lot from it and think is a very good idea. Thank you for the help

• nothing to say except ot should be done again....i cant see why is wouldnt be useful to have a small thing like this running through the whole 5 years. this would get students into the habbit of finding out about changes in dentistry and increase their knowledge of dentistry holisticaly. i would like something like that.

Pros and cons of Bbd online projects

• Pros• 21st century

approach• Monitoring progress• Transferable skills• Independent study• Individuals benefit

from group effort• Feedback is

positive• Plagiarism

detection

• Cons• Set-up• Marketing

essential• Not every article

available electronically

• Sufficient numbers required

Reviewing the curriculum

• Reviewed 2005• Pressure on year 2

– Students want earlier patient contact

• Electives– Safety considerations?– Educational value?

• GDC First Five Years • Validated spring 2006• Implemented autumn 2006

Popularity of SSE options since 2001-02

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Spanish French Italian German BSL Project

No

s. o

f st

ud

ents

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

Teaching hours Year 2 BDS 2004-05

0 50 100 150 200

Path. and Micro.

Pharmacology

Health and Soc.

Dent. Materials

Oral Biology

Op. Tech.

SSEs

BLS sessions

No. of hours

ML - 48 hoursBSL - 60 hours

The First Five YearsTHE CONTINUITY OF DENTAL EDUCATION12. The primary dental degree or diploma represents

only the first stage in an educational continuum which should last throughout a dentist’s practising life. Graduation is usually followed at an early stage by a period of vocational training which under current proposals may evolve into a two-year period of general professional training. Some dentists may then choose to undertake a period of specialist training. Beyond these formal educational arrangements, the dentist will be required to undertake a minimum amount of continuing professional development as a condition of maintaining registration with the GDC. The curriculum must prepare students to undertake self-directed learning throughout their professional lives.

The First Five Years

THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT 31. The university will also provide library facilities

and information technology resources. These should be sufficient to enable all dental students to undertake guided self-learning. Formal instruction should be given in the use of personal learning techniques, such as computer-assisted learning, with emphasis on the developing area of health informatics.

The First Five Years

ELECTIVE STUDIES108. It is desirable, though not essential, for dental

students to visit other dental schools or dental clinical centres, either in the United Kingdom or abroad, during the period of clinical study. The main objective should be to broaden the undergraduates‘ education by exploring the dental problems and dental management systems in another context. As far as possible, curricula should be designed to facilitate opportunities for elective studies. Elective visits might be arranged around a project consisting of either audit or research, and the results should be presented on return by students in written form or verbally before an audience.

Bristol BDS programme structure from 2006 Year 1 2 3 4 5 Weeks 30 38 42 42 42

Introductory fortnight

Basic Medical Pathology &

Sciences Microbiology

Anatomy Pharmacology

Biochemistry Social dentistry

Physiology Biomaterials Science

BLS ILS Basic Dental Techniques Advanced Clinical Foundation Elements

Dental assisting

Disability & special needs

Clinician-patient interface Anxiety and pain control

and conscious sedation

Periodontology

Radiation protection

Research concepts, methodologies and project Research Project

Record of achievement – reflective portfolio – personal and professional development

SymposiaSymposiaBasic & clinicalBasic & clinical

sciencessciences

Clinical Practice & OutreachIntegrated adult and child dental care

Credit Diploma BMSc BDS

Continuum

of

Dental

Education

A & EA & E

Didactic teaching – teaching divisions - integrated

Continuous Assessment Yr1 Yr Yr3 Yr4 Final BDS

Human disease

Oral disease

Oral Biology

Research concepts, methodologies and project (Year

2)• Lecture course

– History and Philosophy of Science– Evidence-Based Medicine/Dentistry– Epidemiology– Questionnaire Design– Data analysis and Presentation– Qualitative Research– Writing a Protocol– Ethics– Statistics– Clinical trials in dentistry– Dissemination of data

• Dental research symposium

Research concepts, methodologies and project

(Years 3 & 4)• Project preparation through Blackboard-based

site– Compulsory for all students– Literature searching, reviewing, reporting, discussing

• Termly rotations of topics• Choice of topics based on academic interests of staff• Discussion board-based group work• Team-working towards projects

– Database of approved centres for projects (UK/abroad)

• Project– Group decisions on topics– Individuals contribute to totality– Peer marking

Acknowledgements

• Angela Hague• Learning Technology Support

Service – Julian Cook, Andy Ramsden

• Centre for Medical Education– Jane Williams, Dominic Alder

• Lis Jones