DTUK2910

November 29-December 5, 20108 MSc Blog United Kingdom Edition Halloween on Canal St Elaine Halley gets residential and looks at critical reading F ollowing on from a few more webinars, the course module on critical reading has begun. This is hosted on Man- chester University’s own platform called Blackboard, which allows us to follow the course on-line week by week. We were intro- duced to the system by Anne- Marie Glenny, who is the course leader and tutor and advised us that if we keep up week by week she will be facilitating the discussion board and we will get feedback week by week. This has been a good dis- cipline as otherwise it has been tempting to let the lectures build up and then find you have nine hours of webinar to catchuponinashortspaceoftime. The blackboard system utilises interactive learning with videos and tutorials on searching for documents on Medline and other databases – I had no idea there were so many different ways to search! There are also links to further learning including some very useful checklists on how to critically appraise different types of studies – dusting down my memory banks to remember the difference between an RCT (not the endo type!) and a cohort study etc. And I am thrilled, in a kind of sad way that I should probably not admit,toseethatthisweekthereis a section on Endnote – I may fi- nally understand how to keep track of all my references! Hooray! We faced considerable stress and late nights to complete the submission of our next five clini- cal cases – which was reduced to three at the last minute, but I managed to submit five as that means I’ve only got six instead of eight to get together before the end of January. The clinical case submissions are very specific which makes case selection quite difficult – and we are learning how to include more evidence in the case write-ups. The specific feedback is yet to be received so we’ll see! I was fortunate to have documented many cases over the years which I could use in some instances (although there always seems to me a photo missing!) but if you have just started with photography at the start of this course, the workload to get all the cases in must be even harder. This deadline was closely followed by our second residen- tial course held in Manchester with teaching at the MANDEC institute. We had three days with Prof Nasser Barghi, who has unbelievable energy and passion for teaching – and pro- vided a detailed update on ma- terials, repairs in porcelain and handling Zirconia. The hands-on session was well sup- ported by Optident who had or- der forms for everything that was mentioned in the lectures. TheSundaywasahands-oncritical appraisal session (not easy afterHalloween on Canal Street – you’d think I’d learn!) fol- lowed by a hands-on session on muscle exam and face- bow registration. Again, I have the greatest re- spect for the students who have travelled literally from all over the world. Never again can I com- plain about the flight from Edin- burgh. The diversity within our student group truly adds to the learning experience. Meanwhile – I have two dead- lines looming in the next few weeks – a critical reading as- signment and two essays. Help – Medline here I come!! DT About the author Elaine Halley BDS DGDP (UK) is the BACD Immediate Past President and the principal of Cherrybank Dental Spa, a private practice in Perth. She is an active member of the AACD and her main interest is cosmetic and ad- vanced restorative dentistry and she has studied extensively in the United States, Europe and the UK.