Online dental trauma course for medical education

A literature review identified a knowledge deficit among medical doctors about dental trauma management. To overcome this knowledge gap, a proposal to integrate dental traumatology teaching into the medical curriculum was made to raise medical students' awareness of, and familiarity with managing dental injuries. Despite the challenges of teaching dental trauma, online courses are viewed as a practical learning approach for students to access course material during their busy university schedules. In focusing on the constructivist model, this article details the design and development of the online dental trauma course. It is an example of a learner-led, fully online course. The six steps involved in the course development were as follows: (1) structured order from preclinical to clinical topics; (2) content covering all essential information on TDI diagnosis and management; (3) illustrative materials to support engagement and motivation to complete the course; (4) feedback processes to evaluate the learning process; (5) interactions between peers, educators, and learning materials to help facilitate learning; and (6) content that encompasses mainly visual learning styles. The online dental trauma course has the potential to make important contributions to medical education.