Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and barriers in distance education using smartphones among Pediatric Dentistry Master Degree students during COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was performed by the distribution of a validated well-constructed online questionnaire consisting of five sections (21 questions). The five sections gathered information about demographic characteristics of the participants, the rate of smartphone utilization, the extent of smartphones utilization for knowledge purposes, the participants' attitudes toward smartphone utilization and barriers to smartphones utilization in distance education.
Results: The results revealed that all the respondents had smartphones. 73.8% of the respondents used the internet more than 4 hours daily. 93.4% of the respondents preferred using their smartphone for study and research activities rather than using the library. 67.2% strongly agreed that the use of mobile tools is beneficial. 60.7% of the respondents disagreed that wireless access is available in all their locations.
Conclusion: Smartphones provided an additional mean for dental education and knowledge acquisition during COVID-19 pandemic. Postgraduate dental students have adequate knowledge about dental mobile applications that can be used in dental education. Lack of internet availability in the different premises can be considered a possible barrier to smartphone technology utilization.