Abstract:

This study aims to explore student usage of computers, their attitude towards E-learning, and to identify the intended support from the University to promote e-learning among dental students.

Method:
The sample includes all the dental students (1st to 5th) who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire to respond using a Likert scale and answering open-ended questions.

Results:
The students number in each batch was 58, 68, 63, 44 and 18 for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Year respectively. Computer usage of students before entering university in the frequency of daily, weekly, and occasionally was 50.2% (126), 24.7% (62) and 21.5% (54) respectively. It was 71.3% (179), 10.7% (27) and 12.3% (31) respectively at the university. Every student believed that E-learning resources are useful for studies. When the responses were analysed among all batches for statement 1: “I think I am a person who likes to study subject matter using E-learning resources rather than lecture handouts or textbooks”, 34.3% (86) and 8% (20) students responded with “Agree” and “Strongly agree” respectively while 28.7% (72) had a neutral opinion. A majority responded with “Disagree” 50.2% (126) or “Strongly disagree” 39.4% (99) for the negative statement 2: “I think that using E-learning resources for studying is a waste of time”. For statement 3: “I think I can get more knowledge using E-learning resources rather than printed material within the same duration”, 35.9% (90) and 34.3% (86) students responded with “Agree” and “Strongly agree” respectively while 11.2% (28) had a neutral opinion. The responses for the above 3 statements from five different batches were analysed. For statement 1, the highest positive score (Agree & strongly agree) was observed in the 5th Year (77.8%) followed by 4th (54.5%), 2nd (41.2%) 1st (39.6%) and 3rd year (26.9%). The highest negative score (Disagree & Strongly disagree) for statement 2 was received from the 5th year (100%) followed by 4th (93.2%), 2nd (89.7%) 3rd (88.8%) and 1st year (84.5%) students. For statement 3, the highest positive score was from 4th year (59%) followed by 5th (50%), 2nd (47 %) 1st (44.8%) and 3rd year (38%) students. Among E-learning resources, lecture notes (136) were in great demand followed by videos of clinical and laboratory procedures (88), E-books (67), quizzes & answers (28), clinical pictures (21), useful links (20), information of current research and latest treatments (19), and forums & discussions (17). The students identified several barriers in e-learning and suggested free and fast wireless networking (135) and increasing computer facilities (28).

Discussion:
Although computer usage of students increases more in university than in school the results show that further motivation of students and teachers is necessary to use E-learning effectively. Although the representative samples are small in the 5th and 4th year batches, our results suggest that attitudes towards E-learning are more positive among the seniors than among juniors. Further studies are necessary with larger groups of students from different batches to confirm this conclusion. We conclude that there is great scope for E-learning among the dental students in Sri Lanka. But institutional policy on teaching and learning process and technological infrastructure of the University should be improved in order to have a successful outcome.

Keywords:

e-learning, Attitudes, Sri Lanka, Dental, Computer, University.