Undergraduate students’ performance and perception of video-recordings versus live demonstrations for teaching orthodontic laboratory procedures: a randomized trial

Objectives: To compare three methods of delivering an orthodontic laboratory procedure on students’ academic performance; live demonstration, video-recorded demonstration, or both. To assess students’ perceptions and preferences to the demonstration methods employed. Materials and methods: A total of 202 fourth-year undergraduate students were randomly allocated to three groups; live demonstration, video-recorded demonstration, or both. Students were instructed to construct a buccal canine retractor immediately after the demonstration method ended, answer 2 short essay questions about buccal canine retractors to assess their theoretical comprehension, and fill a questionnaire to assess their perception and attitude towards the methods of demonstration. Results: The mean score for construction of the buccal canine retractor was significantly higher for the live demonstration group compared to the 2 other groups (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the 3 groups in answering the essay questions (P > 0.05). Most students (95.3%) agreed that live demonstrations helped them visualize and understand difficult wire bending techniques, and allowed interaction between students and the lecturer (93.9%). Around 83% agreed that video recordings were a useful aid to live demonstrations but only 11.9% indicated that they could totally replace live demonstrations. More than half of the students preferred a live demonstration compared to watching a video-recording. Conclusion: The live demonstration group performed better than the video-recorded demonstration group. Most students preferred a live demonstration method of teaching orthodontic wire bending, however the majority indicated that a video-recorded demonstration was a useful aid to a live demonstration.