Effectiveness of online faculty calibration: A randomized crossover study

Purpose: Dental hygiene faculty members must be able to provide evidence of skill calibration for clinical evaluation of students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of online instructional videos as compared to in-person sessions for faculty calibration.

Methods: A randomised crossover pretest/posttest research design was used to evaluate online and in-person faculty calibration activities. Fifteen faculty members from a baccalaureate dental hygiene programme were randomly assigned to an AB or BA sequence for calibration sessions on two different instruments. Following a 2-week washout period, the groups switched activity modalities. A pretest, posttest and retention test, administered 10 weeks following the activity, were administered to determine learning levels and the new and retained knowledge. A 7-point Likert scale questionnaire evaluated the reaction to and impact of the calibration activities. Descriptive statistics analysed demographic and Likert scale data. Paired samples t-tests were used to analyse the research questions (p ≤ 0.05).

Results: Online calibration activities yielded higher posttest scores than in-person activities (p = 0.01). Findings related to feelings of confidence revealed that a greater percentage of participants agreed that online calibration activities increased their ability to evaluate student performance. Findings related to feelings of preparedness supported equal percentages of participants who agreed the online and in-person activities increased their ability to teach dental hygiene instrumentation. There was no significant difference between in-person and online retention test scores (p = 0.235).

Conclusion: Faculty members agreed that both online and in-person calibration activities were an effective use of their time and contributed to greater feelings of confidence and preparedness. However, the online calibration activities seemed to be more effective at increasing calibration on instrumentation. More research is needed to determine additional effective strategies for the online calibration of clinical faculty.