The Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Anatomy for Medical Sciences: Narrative Review

Self Cite

Anatomy is shifting toward a greater focus on adopting digital delivery. To advance digital and authentic learning in anatomy, a flipped classroom model integrating multimodal digital resources and a multimedia group assignment was designed and implemented for first‐year neuroanatomy and third‐year regional anatomy curricula. A five‐point Likert scale learning and teaching survey was conducted for a total of 145 undergraduate health science students to evaluate students' perception of the flipped classroom model and digital resources. This study revealed that over two‐thirds of participants strongly agreed or agreed that the flipped classroom model helped their independent learning and understanding of difficult anatomy concepts. The response showed students consistently enjoyed their experience of using multimodal digital anatomy resources. Both first‐year (75%) and third‐year (88%) students strongly agreed or agreed that digital tools are very valuable and interactive for studying anatomy. Most students strongly agreed or agreed that digital anatomy tools increased their learning experience (~80%) and confidence (> 70%). The third‐year students rated the value of digital anatomy tools significantly higher than the first‐year students (p = 0.0038). A taxonomy‐based assessment strategy revealed that the third‐year students, but not the first‐year, demonstrated improved performance in assessments relating to clinical application (p = 0.045). In summary, a flipped anatomy classroom integrating multimodal digital approaches exerted positive impact upon learning experience of both junior and senior students, the latter of whom demonstrated improved learning performance. This study extends the pedagogy innovation of flipped classroom teaching, which will advance future anatomy curriculum development, pertinent to post‐pandemic education.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Modern anatomy teaching is now embracing new modalities for innovation. Digital anatomy, or what is often defined as computer-based three-dimensional (3D) modeling of the human body (Uhl et al, 2021), is advancing given progress and sophistication in computer modeling, virtual and augmented reality (Wickramasinghe et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flipped anatomy classroom integrating multimodal digital resources shows positive influence upon students' experience and learning performance

Xiao

Adnan

2022

Self Cite

“…The pandemic has, moreover, confirmed that collaboration is essential to providing virtual, equitable, and inclusive education. The crisis's constraints demand equal attention and collective action addressing all stakeholders in anatomy education (Wickramasinghe et al, 2022). In conjunction with strategic planning and pre‐emptive evaluations, well‐designed anatomy curricula with a strong underlying pedagogical framework are required to address the gaps identified in this review (Mishall et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting more future‐ready anatomy education after the Covid‐19 pandemic: A scoping review

Gasmalla

Mossa

Taha

et al. 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic caused an abrupt transition from face‐to‐face to online anatomy teaching, learning, and assessment. Although online education has ensured the continuity of anatomy education during the pandemic, its implementation has been challenging, and its effectiveness has been questioned. Therefore, literature pertinent to online anatomy education during the pandemic is crucial to explain Covid‐19's disruptions to this field. Accordingly, this scoping review explored changes, disruptions, and gaps in anatomy teaching and assessment during Covid‐19 using an enhanced version of Arksey and O′Malley's six‐stage protocol. Five online databases were searched for articles that described changes and disruptions in anatomy education. Three independent researchers were involved in titles, abstracts, and full texts screening, while another four researchers were independently involved in data extraction, charting, and synthesis. This review revealed six themes: immediate strategic plans and actions, teaching and learning changes, online assessment practice, students' and educators' receptivity and adaptability, online learning and assessment effects, and future directions. It also revealed four gaps: non‐future‐ready curricula, learning obstacles, administrative and teaching challenges, and online education ethical issues. The results were reported in tabular and narrative forms, following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA‐ScR guidelines). Understanding the evolution and gaps in anatomy education during the Covid‐19 pandemic will help anatomists design future‐ready, adaptable curricula.

“…As digital anatomy develops further it will create new opportunities for future generations of anatomists not only in terms of their teaching delivery but also in their own scholarship and research development. Digital anatomy has not only begun to revolutionize anatomy education but is shifting the paradigm of pre‐ and vocational training for healthcare professionals at multiple levels (Wickramasinghe et al, 2022 ). However, if digital anatomy is to make a real ongoing impact there will need to be a commitment from institutional leaders to support educators in exploring digital possibilities as well as appropriate investment in technology and training.…”

Section: Future Outlooksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatomy education beyond the Covid‐19 pandemic: A changing pedagogy

Xiao

Evans

2022

Self Cite

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic has induced multifaceted changes in anatomical education. There has been a significant increase in the employment of digital technologies coupled with the upskilling of educators' capacity and altered attitudes toward the digitalization process. While challenges remain, learners have demonstrated capabilities to adapt to digital delivery, engagement and assessment. With alternative and innovative teaching and learning strategies having been trialed and implemented for almost two years, the key question now is what the pedagogy will be for anatomy education beyond the pandemic. Here we discuss some of the changes in anatomy education that have taken place as a result of the Covid‐19 pandemic and importantly present some outlooks for evidence‐based anatomy pedagogy as the world enters the post‐pandemic phase and beyond. The authors conclude that the anatomy discipline is ready to further modernize and has the opportunity to use digital technologies to evolve and enhance anatomy education to ensure students are provided with the learning experience which will prepare them best for the future.