The utilization of mobile devices in education is a growing trend in various subjects. We developed the Dental and Maxillofacial Development Teaching Atlas App, and applied it to the learning process of oral histopathology. The aim of the current study was to investigate the educational effects of atlas-based mobile-assisted teaching in the field of dental medicine, and to suggest relevant improvements. The Dental and Maxillofacial Development Teaching Atlas App encompasses a wide range of atlases. It harbors various features, such as terminology definitions, student communications, and teacher-student interactions. By conducting questionnaires (70 students) and a quiz (68 students), we obtained students' feedback, to evaluate the effects and application prospects of the WeChat applet. The questionnaire results indicate that students experienced a high level of satisfaction and support. Additionally, students participated in the quiz, with the experimental group exhibiting significantly higher average scores than the control group. The fill-in-the-blank questions, image recognition questions, and the total score all demonstrated statistically significant differences, while the terminology definition questions did not. The Dental and Maxillofacial Development Teaching Atlas App facilitates students' utilization of fragmented time for learning, and demonstrates positive effects in enhancing students' learning interests and proactiveness. It also holds promising potential for applications in other disciplines in the field of dental education.
Keywords: dental education; mobile device; online learning; questionnaire survey; teaching materials.