Perspectives of the Dental Educators with Regard to Online Education

Objectives: The purpose of this study is the evaluation of the perspectives of the educators in Faculties of Dentistry with regard to online education. Materials and Methods: It was requested from the educators of the Faculties of Dentistry to fill in a questionnaire about their perspectives on online education including overall assessment statements. The questionnaire was delivered to the participants as a paper-based or online version. The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics and multiple logistical regression analysis (p < 0.05). Results: 350 valid responses were received by the educators over the course of 15 days. By means of our findings, we observed that the educators accommodate themselves to the online education on easy terms. However, fewer educators found online education advantageous over face-to-face education. In addition, during online education, it was mostly given a negative opinion as to students' class attendance, class participation, and learning success can be controlled or not. According to the results of the multiple logistical regression analysis, it was shown that the positive opinions of the educators in terms of their perspectives about online education can be increased with the increase in weekly course hours and the current technological infrastructure situation, and can be decreased with the increase in tenure. Conclusion: Our study shows that the perspectives of the educators with regard to online education were not positive in general. However, the results demonstrate that the perspectives of the educators for online education can change with various factors.