Background:

providing dental professionals with knowledge for their performance while facing the COVID-19 pandemic is a necessity; doing it in a virtual environment is really a challenge.

Objective:

to describe the use of the WhatsApp application in a course on dental care in times of COVID-19.

Methods:

a descriptive research was carried out from May to June 2020 at the “Manuel Fajardo Rivero” Army University Hospital in Santa Clara, Villa Clara. Theoretical methods were used: analysis-synthesis and systemic approach; empirical ones: bibliographic review for the selection and foundation of course content, positive, negative and interesting technique and the criteria of specialists for the evaluation of the designed product.

Results:

the course was structured in four topics, with their objectives, contents, methodological guidelines, teaching tasks and basic bibliography. Once its design was completed, it was evaluated by specialists and implemented in a virtual environment (WhatsApp) for a month. Its aspects were highlighted: positive, the applicability of the contents taught; negative, the limitation of technology due to lack of mobile phones; and interesting, the steady updating of the topics in line with the articles published online.

Conclusions:

the WhatsApp application is proposed as a tool to promote participation and interaction during the course and as a didactic resource that promoted learning from distance learning.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español