Students' Perceptions About the Instructors' Competence in Technology-supported Courses at Dental Faculty: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: The pandemic has highlighted the importance of technology-supported courses throughout the world. Evaluating the perceptions of students attending these courses is important to provide high-quality education Materials and Methods: This study was carried out on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade dentistry students. The "Student Perceptions Scale Regarding the Knowledge of Instructors in Technology - Supported Classrooms" was applied to 207 dentistry students. This scale consists of four sub-dimensions: subject matter knowledge (SMK), technological knowledge (TK), knowledge of students' understanding (KSU), and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). Results: SMK, KSU, and TPCK sub-dimension scores did not significantly differ by gender (p>0.05). However, the mean TK score of females (3.55 +/- 0.47) was found to be significantly higher than that of males (3.28 +/- 0.59) (p=0.001). There was no statistically significant difference among the SMK, TK, KSU, and TPCK sub-dimension mean scores by age (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the SMK and KSU sub-dimensions by grade (p-values are p<0.001 and p=0.015 respectively). The mean TK and TPCK sub-dimension scores yielded no significant difference by grade (p-values are p=0.368 and p=0.050 respectively). Conclusion: Measuring the quality of technology-assisted teaching and the instructor's TPCK from the student's perspective and determining student perceptions will provide accurate data on the long-term quality of education.