# Virtual and Traditional Learning Technique Impact on Dental Education
## 3 Results  
All students from the above-mentioned disciplines were enrolled in the study, representing a total of 128 clinical undergraduate dental students, of which 79.69% (_n_ = 102) were female and 20.31% (_n_ = 26) were male. Of the 128 students, 106 submitted the questionnaire responses, representing a percentage of 82.81%. About 81.13% of the participants were female (_n_ = 86), the rest of 18.86% (_n_ = 20) were male.  
Regarding the grades obtained in the three study disciplines, for traditional lecturing technique 8.49% of participants were 10 grade students (_n_ = 9), 27.35% were 9 grade  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Questions**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Participant Preference**} \\ \cline{2-4}  & **Virtual** & **Traditional** & **No Difference** \\ \hline Regarding the flexibility of lecture time (morning, afternoon, evening), which & 82 (77.35\%) & 18 (16.98\%) & 6 (5.66\%) \\ lecturing technique do you prefer? & & 76 (71 69\%) & 17 (16.03\%) & 13 (12.26\%) \\ Regarding the flexibility of the duration of the lectures (length of the lecture), which & 46 (43.39\%) & 51 (48.11\%) & 9 (8.49\%) \\ Regarding the lecture’s accessibility (the ability to ask the lecturer a question after the lecture), what teaching technique & 44 (41.50\%) & 46 (43.39\%) & 16 (15.09\%) \\ do you prefer? & & & \\ Regarding the lectures comprehension (ability to gain information from the lecture), which & 46 (43.39\%) & 39 (36.79\%) & 21(19.81\%) \\ lecturing technique do you prefer? & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Participants’ preferences regarding the traditional and virtual lecturing.  
students (\(n=29\)), 35% were 8 grade students (\(n=37\)), 22.64% were 7 grade students (\(n=24\)), and 6.60% were 6 grade students (\(n=7\)).  
For the virtual technique, 46.22% participants were 10 grade students (\(n=49\)), 35.84% were 9 grade students (\(n=38\)), 15.09% were 8 grade students (\(n=16\)), 1.88% were 7 grade students (\(n=2\)), and 0.94% were 6 grade students (\(n=1\)).  
The traditional lecturing technique was compared with the virtual technique, which resulted in better final grades at the clinical course for the three study disciplines. Regarding the grades obtained by the same student, the differences were generally one point or no difference in some cases. Only one student scored lower on the virtual exam because he was not used to this assessment technique and made mistakes in approaching the test. Despite the small difference in the mean grades between the two lecturing techniques, which was about 0.9, such a difference was of no significance from an educational point of view, confirming the close effectiveness between the two lecturing techniques.  
Analysis of the responses in relation to the categorical variables indicates no correlations between participants' preferences and their year of study or their grade (\(p>0.05\)).  
Furthermore, the current study revealed that dental students were highly in favor of the virtual modality in terms of the flexibility of both time (77.35%) and duration (71.69%) of the lecture. This point indicates a clear advantage for virtual learning from the perspective of dental students, as it offers comfort in terms of time.  
Regarding lecture interactivity, a significant increase in student preference toward the traditional technique was observed. Our study revealed that 48.11% of the students preferred the traditional method, 43.39% preferred the online method, whereas 8.49% of them were indifferent.  
Lecture approach ability and lecture comprehension shared close levels of preference, 41.50% and 43.39% respectively, although the virtual lecturing technique was preferred. These two points intersect and together contribute to students' knowledge gain. Table 1 presents the participants' preferences regarding the traditional and virtual lecturing.