Rate My Professor Hanna Olson

Hanna Olson serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Dental Education Research in the Department of Oral Sciences within the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. Holding qualifications including DentHyg, MHSc, and MHEd (EdTech), she has focused her career on advancing teaching and learning in dental and oral health education. As one of the Interprofessional Education (IPE) Leads for the Faculty of Dentistry, she plans and facilitates IPE activities across various health professional programmes at the university. Olson contributes significantly to undergraduate and postgraduate oral health education, designing and developing eLearning materials as shared resources for early learning in dental and oral health programmes. Her research centres on student experiences, employing a learner-centred approach with active learning strategies. She has partnered with international academics and dental specialists to foster innovative collaboration practices in digital dentistry.

Olson's scholarly outputs include peer-reviewed journal articles and conference presentations. Key publications feature 'Interactive e-learning lessons in patient-centred interview: An international multi-centred collaboration project piloted among dental and oral health students at the University of Otago, New Zealand' (2026, IIUM Journal of Orofacial & Health Sciences, with Adam, Carrington et al.), 'Intertwined, multidirectional and interactive: A qualitative study of students’ experiences of interprofessional competencies during an oral pathology module' (2025, Focus on Health Professional Education, with Ronayne, De Silva et al.), and earlier works such as 'Self-perceived stressors of Bachelor of Oral Health students and implications for student support' (2019) and 'Working characteristics for practising dental hygienists in Aotearoa New Zealand' (2022). She has presented on topics like collaborative innovation in dental education (2025, Pan-Pacific Leading Dental Schools Symposium) and silver diamine fluoride use in paediatric oral health (2025, Faculty of Dentistry Symposium). Additionally, Olson completed her Master of Higher Education thesis titled 'Improving fundamental learning between Faculty of Dentistry students through team-based interprofessional education in different modes of delivery' at the University of Otago in 2024. Her contributions extend to course coordination in advanced oral health therapy and principles.