| The use of web-based lessons in dental education and other undergraduate, graduate, and professional educational settings has increased dramatically in recent years but very few studies have shown a relationship between the use of web-based lessons and student performance. The present study examined the relationship between how first year dental students at The University of Texas, Houston, Dental Branch used supplemental web-based lessons in a Dental Biochemistry course and their performance in two sections of the course covering intermediary metabolism. A correlational design was used in this study to establish a relationship between student performance and time of use of the lessons, whether the lessons were printed out, or whether the lessons were used in an interactive manner. The Pearson product-moment correlation technique was used to calculate correlation coefficients. A statistically significant negative correlation was obtained for examination 4 between the usage time reported by the students and their performance on this exam. No other statistically significant results were obtained for student performance or time reported by the students for examination 5, usage reported by the Blackboard course management system, the percentage of web-lessons printed, or the percentage of web-lessons used in an on-line manner. Based on these results, all three of the proposed directional research hypotheses were not accepted. The results of this study did not provide evidence for a relationship between how dental students use web-based lessons and their performance in the corresponding sections of the dental biochemistry course. Further studies will be needed to clarify how the students use the web-based lessons and the nature of the relationship between student performance and an aspect of web lesson use. |
