Facilitation of student-staff partnership in development of digital learning tools through a special study module

A student-staff partnership was formed as part of a final year special study module to provide dental students the opportunity to work closely with faculty to produce high-quality e-learning resources in areas of the curriculum identified by the students as particularly difficult. The student-staff team identified the following themes as major influences on the success of the project: student-staff interaction, ownership, managing expectations, time pressures, and co-creation partnership benefits. This partnership resulted in a valuable learning experience for both the students and staff involved. The resource developed was evaluated by junior dental students in second and third year of the five year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree programme at Glasgow Dental School and showed a high degree of acceptability by those in both groups. The quality assurance built into the process has resulted in an e-learning resource that has been incorporated directly into our flipped classroom model for pre-clinical skills teaching

A rapid transition to blended learning: the journey of a dental degree programme pivoting online

The University of Glasgow Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree programme is a practical clinical professionally regulated discipline. Given the mode of transmission of SARS Cov-2 the dental profession and associated programmes of study have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating a rapid pivot to online and blended learning. This case study shows how the work of early adopters of technology enhanced learning and teaching (TELT) at the dental school, and a timely staff-student partnership helped to lay the foundations for this pivot in response to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. A large amount of teaching required modification and adaptation to support remote delivery and, through collaboration, innovation and supported creativity, we were able to produce some very effective models for learning and teaching. To illustrate this, two specific examples have been presented: a novel approach to support the delivery of essential local anaesthesia training for second year dental students using collaborative wikis and online learning; and the use Microsoft Teams to support student integration and a sense of community among our first year dental students through active, small group collaborative learning. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have provided the opportunity to align the teaching of practical skills with technology and instil a positive shift in institutional practices. The effectiveness of this shift within the BDS degree programme and the impact on the development of our students will remain the focus of the school’s TELT partnership

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

Facilitation of student-staff partnership in development of digital learning tools through a special study module

A student-staff partnership was formed as part of a final year special study module to provide dental students the opportunity to work closely with faculty to produce high-quality e-learning resources in areas of the curriculum identified by the students as particularly difficult. The student-staff team identified the following themes as major influences on the success of the project: student-staff interaction, ownership, managing expectations, time pressures, and co-creation partnership benefits. This partnership resulted in a valuable learning experience for both the students and staff involved. The resource developed was evaluated by junior dental students in second and third year of the five year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree programme at Glasgow Dental School and showed a high degree of acceptability by those in both groups. The quality assurance built into the process has resulted in an e-learning resource that has been incorporated directly into our flipped classroom model for pre-clinical skills teaching