The Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry at Temple has launched Temple Dental eCampus, the first online educational system offered by a U.S. dental school. Kornberg’s eCampus will provide lectures, webinars and ePortfolios to dental students and practicing dentists. Kornberg Dean Amid Ismail said there are currently a lot of private online educational platforms, but because Temple Dental eCampus has the Temple name, it will perceived as more academic and educational.

“This project started with the idea that we have to have a mixed education model because we need to reach out globally as well as locally,” Ismail said. “This is unique in that it is the first attempt to introduce global online learning as a supplement to dental education.”

The online site will allow dental students and dentists to view lectures, webinars and even live procedures for a minimal fee. And viewers may earn continuing-education credits for viewing certain online materials.

“We can group a series of lectures on any given topic and they can be used as continuing education for dentists,” he noted. “Once they complete viewing the required lectures, we can issue a continuing-education certificate.”
  
Ismail likened the ePortolio portion of the website to a digital binder, in which anonymous patient cases can be posted for students to review, answer questions, provide diagnoses and recommend treatments.

“The problem is, we don’t learn from each other; we only learn from what we do,” Ismail explained. “For example, a student sees a particular case with a patient, but the other 139 students don’t see it because we can’t fit 140 students in the clinic at one time. This is a way for them to share cases with each other."

Ismail added that the ePortfolios also will allow faculty to review and evaluate what the students are doing and their comprehension of what they are learning in the classroom.

“I don’t envision this as a replacement for lectures or class meetings, but rather, as a supplement to their education that not only provides background information for the classroom, but also a different way of evaluating their progress,” he said.

Presently, all materials are free (use PROMO2014 when registering), but Ismail expects the site to be fully populated and start charging fees within the next six months.