Audience and Presenter Comparison of Live Web-Based Lectures and Traditional Classroom Lectures During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess participants’ and presenters’ perceptions of a live web-based lecture series in comparison to traditional in-person lectures. Materials and Methods: A virtual lecture series was organized by the——-from March 25th until June 3rd of 2020. Twenty-five postgraduate prosthodontics programs and 81 presenters participated. Two surveys were developed and distributed to the audience (N = 330) and the presenters (N = 81). Follow-up emails were sent one week, three weeks, and four weeks after the initial email survey to encourage its completion. The data were analyzed descriptively. One-way ANOVA (p = 0.05), followed by a post hoc test, were used to compare the response percentages among the different generations of presenters and participants. Results: Fifty-two percent of participants, and 65% of presenters, completed the survey. More than 96% of participants and presenters were satisfied with the lecture series. Seventy-nine percent of audience members felt that the live web-based lectures were as effective as traditional classroom lectures, or more effective; 32% of presenters agreed. Millennial audience members had significantly (p = 0.0028) more negative responses than the other generations. Conclusion: Participants have more positive perceptions of web-based lectures than presenters.