The American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) has introduced a new series of online courses designed to support dental hygiene faculty in meeting the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) Standard 3-6b. The standard requires that all dental hygiene program faculty have documented training in educational methodology relevant to their teaching assignments.
Previously, faculty members often had to compile training from various sources to meet this requirement. According to ADHA, the new Educational Methodologies course series offers a centralized and standardized resource.
“This series fills a void that dental hygiene faculty have been experiencing for years,” said JoAnn Gurenlian, MS, Ph.D., RDH, ADHA director of education, research and advocacy. “Faculty told us they were having to create their own training materials to fulfill CODA requirements. Now they have a centralized resource from ADHA with a standardized approach that ensures consistency across programs while meeting CODA requirements.”
The initial release includes six courses aligned with core areas of the dental hygiene curriculum:
- Dental Anatomy
- Preventive Dentistry
- Clinical Instruction/Calibration
- Ethics and Legal Principles
- Pain Management
- Periodontology
Three additional courses—Radiology, Head and Neck Anatomy, and Dental Materials—are scheduled for release in mid-July. ADHA plans to expand the series to 20 subject areas over the next two years.
Each course includes educational theory and subject-specific teaching strategies, along with adult learning principles, sample activities, downloadable handouts, and practical tools for classroom use.
“I’m honored to contribute to the Educational Methodologies. This initiative is a critical step forward in addressing a gap that has long challenged allied dental faculty, which is access to methodology training that’s both relevant and immediately applicable to their unique content-specific areas,” said Emily Boge, Ed.D., RDH, CDA, who authored the course on Ethical and Legal Principles.
ADHA states that the courses were developed by content experts, including textbook authors and published researchers, and underwent a review process to ensure accuracy and instructional quality.
“The courses are designed with faculty in mind, breaking content into short video segments of three to six minutes for optimal comprehension,” Gurenlian said. “Each course includes multiple parts with self-reflection exercises, downloadable resources like sample activities and curriculum guides, and knowledge checks after each section. Faculty can access practical tools they can immediately customize for their own classrooms, from faculty guides to student handouts.”
Courses are available through ADHA’s CE Smart platform at a cost of $25 for members and subscribers, and $80 for nonmembers. Each course provides 2.0 continuing education credits.
More information is available at adha.org/CESmartCatalog.
