Teaching Millennials: Challenges and Opportunities

In recent years and with the enrollment of millennials in graduate schools, dental education system has undergone a tangible and fascinating change . The generation of millennials who have been born in the digital era have major differences from generations past in the way  they see the world, want to be treated and certainly different in the way they learn. Their title “Millennials” has been associated with different traits and characteristics in different academic circles and much research has been done to help understand their unique personalities, perspectives and their enormous potential to succeed and solve today’s big health problems. In this talk we will explore the general characteristics of millennial learners and what motivates them. We will discuss their best learning environments and the redefined concept of an ideal “classroom”in the post millennial era. We will focus on different strategies and activities to engage them and utilize their tech savvy nature to deliver new content. Application of various apps and other digital teaching tools for student engagement and participation improvement and assistance for faculty in monitoring student progress and evaluation is also discussed.

Learning objectives:

– Will describe the unique characteristics of millennial learners and how the eLearning environment is changing the conventional classroom dynamics.

– Will discuss the “five Rs”; strategies for engaging millennial’s in the classroom and beyond.

– Will understand how to utilize millennial’s “Tech Savvy” to deliver an individualized learning experience.

– Will discuss the redefined role of the faculty in different components of the curriculum and student assessment.