Designing and implementing a virtual student-support package of TUMS in the context of Tritapp medical social networking: assessing newcomer students' satisfaction (Appropriate for COVID-19 pandemic and post-coronavirus)

The aim of the present study was to design and deploy a virtual support package using the Tritapp software platform for newcomer students of School of Dentistry and to evaluate the level of satisfaction of these students in using this tool. In order to produce relevant content, the support items needed by students were classified into three categories:  educational and research, welfare and cultural and administrative affairs. The practical contents of each of were collected and prepared in the form of videos, text, photos, or posters. An icon called “support package for newcomer students of School of Dentistry” was defined in the Tritapp application, a social network for medical science professionals. Then, the students were registered and the received the virtual support package for a period of six months. A researcher-made questionnaire was designed and given to the students to assess the student satisfaction. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software. The results of the questionnaire were reported that 50 students answered the questionnaire, of which 16 (32%) used the virtual support package. 50% of the respondents were from Tehran province and the rest were from other provinces. The participation rate of students living in Tehran was 57.14% and the participation rate of students living in other provinces was 22.22%. The result of students' satisfaction with the virtual support package showed that such support is useful for newcomer students. Tritapp application seems to be potentially efficient and suitable professional platform for student supports.