Effectiveness of an educational application on dental students prescription knowledge: a quasi-experimental study

Today, with the increase of new technologies and the development of digital devices, new methods can be used for better and more efficient education. Therefore, this study was carried out to explore the effect of a Windows based application on dental students' prescription knowledge.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 21 dental students of Guilan University of Medical Sceinces, Iran in 2024 using a prescription writing training software containing 24 valid researcher-made clinical senarios. Before and after using the application, the students participated in a 10-question valid test made by the researcher with the same taxonomy. Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire for Software containing 25 questions was given to each student. Then, a questionnaire containing demographic characteristics, hours of software usage, and pre-and post-test scores was completed by the students online via a virtual link. Data analysis was done using SPSS 26 software, and the significance level was considered less than 0.05.

Using this application, dental students achieved a significantly higher average post-test score in prescription knowledge compared to their pre-test score, 69.05 ± 19.97 vs. 41.43 ± 15.26, respectively (p < 0.001, effect size 1.8 [0.99-2.61]). Also, their overall level of satisfaction with this application has been high.

Given the study's limitations, using medical prescription training software in the form of a serious game appears to be effective in enhancing dental students' prescribing skills.