Artificial Intelligence: friend or foe in the assessment of dental students?

Objectives - Incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) in assessing dental students’ knowledge and skills is in its infancy, despite AI being well established as an aid to aspects of clinical diagnosis and education. This study aimed to investigate whether dental educators perceived AI as beneficial in assessing students.

Methods - This was a mixed methods study where quantitative and qualitative data were generated through a live online polling system, Vevox ^TM . Quantitative data were collected, findings of which were immediately shared with dental educators attending the workshop at a European wide dental educators’ conference. Qualitative data were collected at the workshop via word clouds as part of the online questions, and by asking participants to write down their views, opinions and reflections. Analysis was descriptive and thematic respectively.

Results - 51 conference delegates attended the workshop. 14 questions had a response rate of over 69%, two questions had response rates of 53% and 57% respectively. 65% (n=33) of participants considered that their dental school provided support and training in using AI. Dental educators were uncertain whether assessments of dental students generated by AI were effective in testing students’ knowledge/competence, 47% (n=18). One third of the participants were sure that AI generated assessments were more effective (34%; n=13). Less than half the participants were confident in using AI in assessing dental students (2.24/4; [SD 1.0588]). Thematic analysis revealed key themes: training, effectiveness of AI assessment, current use of AI, concerns, confidence, and advantages/disadvantages.

Conclusions - This study illustrated the diversity in knowledge, confidence and application of AI in the assessment of dental students, and the need for universities and dental schools to invest time and expertise in supporting dental educators in this important area.

Clinical Significance - The education and assessment of dental students should ensure that caring, knowledgeable and skilful practitioners are entrusted with patients care. The use of Artificial Intelligence to support or replace previous assessment techniques need to be understood by dental educators, to ensure that the assessments are robust, validated and workable.