Practical learning in the undergraduate dental course during emergency remote teaching at a federal university

Abstract

The need for social isolation to contain the spread of COVID-19 promoted the closure of Brazilian universities. The classroom needed to be conducted digitally and emergency remote teaching was implemented. The Biomaterials course of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Federal University of Fluminense made the content of the menu available online, including its practical activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the practical learning in emergency remote teaching, from the perception of the students. The COLLES questionnaire was used, analyzing relevance, critical reflection, interaction, support of tutors, support of colleagues and understanding. The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under opinion number 5.376.439, and the data were collected after the Free and Informed Consent Registry. A total of 33 students participated in the study. The data analysis was performed by means of arithmetic mean and values were converted into percentages.  The results showed excellent relevance; satisfactory critical reflection and understanding; support from tutors and regular colleagues; and poor interactivity. The emergency remote teaching was effective in the practical learning of the discipline during the period of social isolation, and despite the difficulties of this pandemic period and limitations in the mode of education, the proposed pedagogical objective was achieved.

Keywords: learning; COVID-19; emergency remote teaching; Dentistry; questionnaire.