This site offers materials we developed and/or curated on topics related to teaching, scholarship, and technology. In addition to these on-demand resources, we also offer consultation and a variety of programs to support your professional development. Contact:
Dr. Meixun Sinky Zheng, Director of Educational Innovation and Assessment; szheng@pacific.edu
Dr. Didem Ozdemir Ozenen, Associate Dean for Oral Health Education, dozdemirozenen@pacific.edu
The Dugoni School has launched a new resource with guidelines to help faculty, staff, and students at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry understand how to use generative AI effectively and responsibly.
For programs offered by the school that provide CDE credits, participants need to register here prior to the start of the program.
Contact Dr. Meixun Sinky Zheng (szheng@pacific.edu) for more details.
These resources were developed in-house at the Dugoni School to help faculty with course planning and design.
Please reach out to Dr. Sinky Zheng (szheng@pacific.edu) for any additional resources.
Below is a list of available and recommended educational tools. If there are other tools you would like to explore that are not listed here, please share with us. For support, contact Dr. Meixun Sinky Zheng.
We also have an Educational and Information Technology Advisory Committee at the Dugoni School. Feel free to reach out to committee members (AY 25-26): Mustafa Radif (Chair), Bina Surti, Hussein Al-Wakeel, Alisa Pham, Raybel Ramos, Didem Ozenen, Sinky Zheng.
(Note: * indicates that we have a license through the Dugoni School or the university.)
List of software and applications available on the San Francisco Campus (login required).
Contact Raybel Ramos, Associate Dean for Information Technology, for details.
List of software and applications (design, reference management, statistics packages, and others) available at the university (login required).
Contact Raybel Ramos, Associate Dean for Information Technology, for details.
The CUBE, a technology-rich collaborative space in the university library, works with faculty, staff, and students to develop digital tools for teaching, learning, and research (e.g., 3D printing, AR, VR, drones, multimedia production). Contact: cube@pacific.edu
This page features resources to help you leverage generative AI (GenAI) for academic purposes. In addition, we will continue to provide ongoing professional development sessions, including seminars, workshops, and on-demand resources.
The Dugoni School has developed the Dugoni Guidelines for Responsible GenAI to support faculty, staff, students, and residents in using GenAI effectively and responsibly for teaching, learning, research, clinical care, and daily administrative work.
Note: All community members are expected to review the guidelines prior to using GenAI in their work. Faculty are also encouraged to remind students to review the guidelines to promote effective and responsible use. Those mentoring students or other trainees on research should review the guidelines with them.
(The guidelines were last updated: 03/20/2025)
(Note: * Indicates that we have licenses through the Dugoni School or the university.)
Below are practical tips, best practices, and sample lessons organized by instructional approaches/context.
Gameplay is a great way to engage this generation of students. Below are a few free web tools to create game-based learning.
Educational outcome data and support that you can request for teaching, research, and administrative purposes.
From idea generation to data access/collection, analysis, and reporting, we provide support to help you translate educational data into actions. Contact:
Meixun Sinky Zheng, PhD, MADS, Director of Educational Innovation and Assessment (szheng@pacific.edu)
Didem Ozdemir Ozenen, DDS, PhD, PhD, Associate Dean for Oral Health Education (dozdemirozenen@pacific.edu)
To provide guidance for accessing and using educational data in a manner that protects privacy and confidentiality while making the data available for continuous quality improvement and evidence-based practices at Pacific Dugoni.
Educational data can be broadly classified into the following two categories:
Learner Performance Data: Data related to an individual' academic and professional performance, including course grades, examination results, licensure exam results, competency assessments, etc.
Program Performance Data: Data related to the overall effectiveness of programs, departments, or the school, including faculty teaching evaluations, student and alumni satisfaction with the dental program, curriculum effectiveness, and other program outcomes.
See the Available Educational Data section at the bottom of this page.
Educational data may be available at two levels:
Individual Data: Data associated with an identifiable individual, such as a student's academic performance or a faculty member's teaching evaluation results.
Summary/Aggregated Data: Aggregated data representing the performance or outcomes of a cohort, group, department, program, or the school as a whole.
All requests for educational data must be submitted through the Educational Data Request Form.
Requests will be reviewed based on the purpose of the request, the type and level of data requested, the intended use, and applicable privacy and confidentiality requirements.
Access to individual-level or sensitive data may require additional review and authorization.
Access and use of educational data must comply with applicable regulations, such as FERPA and HIPAA, and institutional data protection policies.
Educational data may only be used for the purposes specified in the approved request. Any additional use requires prior authorization.
Data may only be accessed by the approved recipients. Sharing data with other individuals or parties requires prior written approval.
If data is to be disseminated through publications or presentations, the school reserves the right (but not the responsibility) to review the relevant data, analysis, and materials prior to dissemination.
IRB Requirements: Research involving human-subject educational data must receive University of the Pacific Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval before data is released. Note: IRB approval does not override the terms outlined in these guidelines.
Below are examples of educational data that you can request for teaching, research, and administrative purposes. There might be other types of data that are not listed here. Please reach out - we might be able to work with you to collect and access the data.
Many technology platforms used at the dental school provide program, course, and student level usage data.
Contact the following individual for research support, including biomedical science, clinical, and health professions education research.
Dr. Rebecca Moazzez
Associate Dean for Research
Director, Center for Innovation and Translation
Chair, Preventive and Restorative Dentistry (PRD)
Contact Dr. Meixun Sinky Zheng, Director of Educational Innovation and Assessment; szheng@pacific.edu.
Dr. Zheng provides consultation for the life cycle of educational research and scholarship, from idea generation to data collection, data analysis, and presentation and manuscript development.
Click here to access a template for educational research posters. It is focused on the organization, content, and key points to be covered in each section.
Note: You might modify the colors to match the look and feel of the Dugoni themed template here created by the dental school's Design & Photo Department. Login with Pacific credentials required.
Click here to access a template for full-length original research manuscripts. It provides a high-level structure for publishing original research, key points to be covered in each section, and tips on how to present research findings.
In addition to full-length original research, JDE also publishes 500-word short papers in the Advancing Through Innovation series. Below are examples of published short papers by Dugoni faculty.
Pacific has access to agreements with Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, and ACS Publications to allow Pacific corresponding authors to publish Open Access in many of their journals for free. Visit the library's Research Support Guide to view the list of journals covered.
Oral Health is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, University of the Pacific. The journal publishes research across all areas of oral health, including education, research, and clinical practice. The journal is open access (free for all readers). But unlike most open access journals, it is also free for all authors.
Co-Editors-in-Chief:
Dr. Didem Ozenen, Associate Dean for Oral Health Education (dozdemirozenen@pacific.edu)
Dr. David Ojcius (dojcius@pacific.edu)
University funding
A variety of grants to support faculty teaching, research, and professional development. (PacificID login required).
Contact: Dr. Didem Ozenen, Associate Dean for Oral Health Education, dozdemirozenen@pacific.edu.
Dugoni grants
The grants support all types of research, including basic science, dental/clinical, and educational research. (PacificID login required).
Contact: Harmony Matshik Dakafay, Research Lab Manager, hmatshikdakafay@pacific.edu.
Byron J. Thayer Fund
Funds may be used to support a variety of programs and projects for the School of Dentistry.
Contact: Dr. Didem Ozenen, Associate Dean for Oral Health Education, dozdemirozenen@pacific.edu.
Resources on grants, grant support, shared instruments and facilities, links to IRB Office and more.
The university library's research support guide webpage has information on citation management (e.g., RefWorks), finding and choosing journals, publishing open access for free, and more.
Follow the steps outlined here (PDF) and below to submit your IRB application.
Visit the IRB page on MyPacific for more resources.
University IRB office: irb@pacific.edu
Dugoni School IRB representatives: Drs. Didem Ozenen, Rebecca Moazzez, Cassio Silva.
This section features research highlights and publications by the dental school faculty, staff, and students. Contact: Dr. Rebecca Moazzez, Associate Dean for Research, at rmoazzez@pacific.edu.
For support, contact:
For questions, contact:
Interested in serving as a peer observer?
For questions, contact:
For questions, contact the academic dean and copy the faculty affairs specialists in the email.
For other faculty resources, visit My Pacific's Academic Affairs/Registrar Office page.
