Abstract
Background
Due to the lack of legal frameworks and specific ethical codes in e-learning, this educational method can lead to problems for students, professors, and educational institutions, including Faculty of Dentistry. Therefore, this study aims to develop codes of ethics in e-learning and to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental students and professors of Tehran University of Medical Sciences about them in 2023.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted on dental students and professors of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2023. Firstly, based on the codes of top 100 universities in the world (according to the Shanghai ranking) and the opinion of experts in the field of e-learning and dentistry, ethical codes and then 2 questionnaires, each containing 33 questions, were defined. An expert panel of 8 evaluated them in terms of content validity and face validity. Finally, the questionnaires were given to professors and students. After collection, the data was analyzed using SPSS software 25.
Results
According to the results of the present study, the average score of knowledge was 10.88 out of -24 to 24, attitude was 41.5 out of 0 to 56 and practice was 7.98 out of 0 to 12 for professors. Also, for students, the average score of knowledge was 7.36 out of -19 to 19, attitude was 38.9 out of 0 to 56 and practice was 7.49 out of 0 to 13. Also, by comparing the obtained averages with demographic information, it was found that the findings were independent of the gender of professors and students, and there was no significant relationship between the attitude-practice and attitude-awareness of the professors, but there was a relationship between the awareness-practice of the professors. For students, there was no significant relationship between attitude-awareness and awareness-practice, while a significant relationship was observed between students' attitude-practice. (p < 0.05)
Conclusion
Awareness of the professors and students of the Faculty of Dentistry of Tehran University of Medical Sciences about the codes of ethics in e-learning is in the medium frequency range and their attitude and practice is good and far from ideal. The findings were independent of the gender of the professors and students, and there was no relationship between the academic degree of the professors and the knowledge and attitude, and only about the practice of the professors and the rank of the professors. A significant relationship between them was observed.