Students use of, knowledge about

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• Students use of, knowledge about
• and attitudes towards computers

Dr. Pedro L. Hernández Dental Informatics
2202 University of Pittsburgh
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• 1984 AAMC
• add information sciences to curriculum
• word processing and e-mail
• choose and use educational material
• access databases evaluate systems
• use specialized systems/databases
• 1998 CODA
• utilize computer-based and web-based information
  technology to enrich student learning
• graduates should be competent in the use of
  information technology resources in contemporary
  dental practice
• UPSDM Competencies
• evaluate the scientific literature including
  information technology resources to make
  evidence-based decisions about oral health

AAMC Association of American Medical Colleges
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Significance

• New graduates, being more computer literate and
  more knowledgeable about informatics should
  acclimate to computing environments more quickly
  and should understand the use of information
  tools for supporting health care and business
  decision making

Lang, WP. Trends in students knowledge,
opinions, and experience regarding dental
informatics and computer applications. JAMIA Vol
2(6) 1995 374-382.
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Skills

• access computer based instruction
• search dental literature
• utilize email, internet, online resources
• practice management systems
• digital imaging
• diagnostic decision support systems
• proficiency in computerized exams

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Dental student surveys

• University of Pennsylvania
• Feldman 1988
• more on generic applications
• least in dental applications

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Lang et al

• 1990
• overall respondents
• low knowledge
• favorable opinion
• limited experience
• few differences between D1 D4

• 1993
• knowledge disparities observed between genders at
  the beginning of dental school were essentially
  gone by the students final year

Lang, WP. Students knowledge, opinions, and
behavior concerning dental informatics and
computer applications. JDE Vol 56(3) 1992 195-199.
Lang, WP. Trends in students knowledge,
opinions, and experience regarding dental
informatics and computer applications. JAMIA Vol
2(6) 1995 374-382.
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Mattheos et al

• students actual competence in the use of
  computers might not be as high as is often
  perceived through self-assessment and ordinal
  scales
• computer literacy remains the field where both
  students as well as academics demonstrate extreme
  diversity of competence

Mattheos, N. A comparative evaluation of computer
literacy amongst dental educators and
students. Eur J Dent Educ 2005 Feb 9(1)32-6.
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Mattheos et al

• task oriented questionnaire
• scores are based on concrete and clear tasks
• reflect actual competences
• better predictive value
• minimize the inherent misperception risk of
  ordinal scales

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Mixed results

• high self-perceived competence was accompanied by
  low actual competence
• competent students assess themselves more
  strictly
• students with different competence levels have
  different perceptions of
• poor, inadequate, adequate, good or
  excellent

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Gender

• A study of 137 undergraduate students yielded
  no sex differences in attitudes toward computers
• Males were significantly more interested in
  replacing traditional teaching and learning with
  the use of computers

Yang, B. Sex differences in attitudes towards
computers and the internet. Psychol Rep 2004
Dec95 (3 Pt 1)862.
Dørup, J. Experience and attitudes towards
information technology among first-year medical
students in Denmark longitudinal questionnaire
survey. J Med Internet Res 20046(1)e10 ltURL
http//www.jmir.org/2004/1/e10/gt
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Gender

• females had more negative attitudes
• less anxiety
• male
• longer computer use
• higher self-perception of experience

Broos, A. Gender and information and
communication technologies anxiety male
self-assurance and female hesitation. Cyberpsychol
Behav. 2005 Feb8(1)21-31.
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Locus of internal control

• control of environment (Rotter)
• highly internal people who are sure that they
  influence what happens to them
• positive attitude
• become more involved
• highly external anything that happens to them
  is the result of fate or the work of others

Wishart, J. Individual differences in nurses and
teacher training students attitudes toward and
use of IT. Nurse Education Today (2002) 22,
231-240.
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Educators

• provide suitable resources for students
  individual differences in attitudes to computers
• provide less open-ended tasks for the less
  internally controlled individual

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Misconceptions

• the fact that one can use computers on a daily
  basis for communication, gaming and word
  processing does not imply that he or she
  automatically possesses the competency required
  for computer use in educational settings of the
  dental school (Mattheos)

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Misconceptions

• students should be competent with computers
  simply because they are young
• succeeding class of students maybe better
  prepared as societal exposure to computers become
  universal (Hollander)
• students who are able to communicate
  electronically are automatically able to perform
  basic tasks such as word processing

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In class exercise
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• validated instruments

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Validation of an Instrument to Measure Dental
Students Use of, Knowledge About, and Attitudes
Towards Computers

• Investigators
• Titus K.L. Schleyer, DMD, PhD
• Humberto Torres-Urquidy, DMD
• Sorin Straja, PhD
• Purpose
• Conduct a measurement study for a new survey
  designed to measure dental students use of,
  knowledge about, and attitudes towards computers

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• measurement studies
• reliability
• reproducible measurements
• test-retest
• multiple simultaneous observations
• validity
• how well it measures the variable of interest
• content - based on validated instruments
• construct - based on factor analysis

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Methods

• survey development
• derived from 1995 survey by Cork et al
• Computers in Medical Care
• 4 scales
• computer use
• computer knowledge
• computer optimism
• computer feature demand
• scale added information resource use
• items added, changed, deleted
• adapted dental environment
• pilot tested

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Computer use

• clinical and non-clinical use
• accessing patient information
• taking notes
• scale
• never, sometimes, often, always
• task oriented
• reliability 0.73 and 0.63

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Information resource use

• frequency of
• e-mail, WWW, Medline, intranet
• scale
• 5 point, never to daily
• resource oriented
• reliability 0.57

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Computer knowledge

• paired computer terms
• hardware vs. software, internet vs. www
• (easy, intermediate, difficult)
• scale
• I dont understand the distinction at all to
• I can define the distinction precisely
• less threatening survey
• factor loading 0.50
• reliability 0.92

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Capabilities of computer systems

• degree of perceived need for application
• system always functions
• system alerts me of patient conditions
• scale
• vitally necessary to not necessary
• not applicable
• factor loading 0.42
• reliability 0.84

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Effects on practice

• degree of optimism regarding computer impact on
  the practice
• practice efficiency, up to date information
• scale
• highly detrimental to highly beneficial
• factor loading 0.71
• reliability 0.95

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Results

• positive correlation between computer knowledge
  and computer use, training and sophistication
• negative correlation between capabilities of
  computer systems and computer use
• item difficulty correlated negatively with
  self-assessed ability lower scores

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Results

• determined reliability and validity of a
  preliminary survey instrument
• established initial estimates for the validity
  and reliability of the instrument
• instrument can be used for demonstration studies

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Results

• asses computer use, knowledge and attitudes of
  students
• use before and after a computer course
• assess student-related outcomes of implementing
  computer applications

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Relevance

• know the level of technological experience
• utilize the most appropriate strategies, methods,
  and resources to help students
• validated instruments are essential as outcomes
  becomes more important in dental education

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Future

• surveys embedded in students emails
• students having to demonstrate computer skills
• students tested in their use of IT before
  licensing
• helping them become
• lifelong learners
• clinicians
• educators
• researchers
• managers

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Questions?