Flow diagram of the teaching experiment.


The total teaching period consisted of 7 credit hours, including 4 credit hours of theoretical class and 3 credit hours for practical instruction. During the theoretical class, one instructor imparted relevant knowledge to the students in detail, including the positions of anatomical markers and the meanings of commonly used measurement items.In the practical instruction class, another instructor guided 94 students to review the basic knowledge and showed them how to complete cephalometric measurement by the traditional method and digital technology (the Dolphin software
While using digital technology, the instructor adjusted results of line spacing on the lateral cranial radiograph to their actual size at first. Then, the instructor accomplished the measurement by adjusting the gray contrast value and other auxiliary methods. After learning the relevant knowledge of commonly used cephalometric measurement points and items, students were encouraged to review relevant contents after class.
One week after the end of the pre-test instruction, 94 students were randomly allocated into two groups through the RAND function in Excel software (Microsoft
According to the cross-over design, one group took the traditional method first to complete the measurement and then used the Dolphin software
