Global survey to assess preferences for attending virtual orthodontic learning sessions: Pre-webinar settings

Abstract

Objectives: To assess technical factors and audience preferences before attending orthodontic online learning activity, the demand for which increased dramatically in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Online survey. Participants: Global orthodontic residents and specialists. Methods: A validated and anonymous survey comprising 17 online questions was sent to 3000 individuals. The data were collected three months later. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were applied. Results: The participants’ response rate was 19.9%, with almost equal gender participation. Most of the responders were based in Asia (51.4%). Almost half of the participants were aged 25–35 years with less than 5 years of clinical experience. Regardless of the age, gender or global distribution, 57.3% of respondents opted to share limited personal information with the host. One-third of the respondents preferred receiving webinar reminders via email, ideally a day and/or one hour before the webinar, especially being exportable to their calendars. Age played a major role in shaping this trend, as young participants favoured the one hour (1-h) pre-webinar reminder more than other age groups ( P=0.02). Receiving information about the speaker, learning outcomes and pre-webinar reading material (WRM) were preferable, particularly among young participants in comparison with the older age groups ( P<0.05). Male participants from Asia and Africa preferred to attend online lectures during the mid-evening on weekends compared with women who were in favour of early evening sessions ( P<0.05). Conclusion: It must be borne in mind during the interpretation of the results that the data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to take into consideration the gender, age, cultural background and level of experience while setting up virtual orthodontic learning sessions. Organisers need to tailor their events to meet the needs of the attendees.