Transition to Effective Online Anatomical Sciences Teaching and Assessments in the Pandemic Era of COVID-19 Should be Evidence-Based

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: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 90%

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

Xiao

Adnan

2022

“…Therefore, the development of digital competencies and the use of education has yet to become future-ready and requires various stakeholders' e.g., involvement in improving the hybrid learning approach so that it is responsive and adaptable to future uncertainties Xiau & Adnan, 2022). Continuous needs assessments and the reevaluation of the anatomy curricula are also needed to establish a basis for curricular changes and redevelopment (Mishall et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the utility of summative anatomy assessments has declined during the Covid‐19 pandemic as anatomy educators have struggled to ensure the validity, reliability, practicality, feasibility, cost‐effectiveness, and educational impacts of online assessments (Van Der Vleuten, 1996). Accordingly, formative assessments must be leveraged alongside the best practical assessment methods in medical education (i.e., the utility of assessment and constructive alignment) in order to ensure high‐quality anatomy assessment during the pandemic (Mishall et al, 2022). These assessment practices must be continuously re‐examined and re‐evaluated by anatomy educators to suit anatomy education's current and future needs.…”

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.

“…These findings were discordant with some studies (Nepal et al, 2020;Bączek et al, 2021;Totlis et al, 2021;Wilhelm et al, 2022). However, similar studies and expert opinions have suggested that online learning of anatomy could be as equally effective as face-to-face learning (Zhou et al, 2020;McKivigan et al, 2021;Zheng et al, 2021;Mishall et al, 2022). This suggests that the strong theoretical grounding accumulated through distance teaching during the pandemic-induced lockdown era was beneficial for scheduled dissection work after returning to school.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 97%

Medical students' perceptions and performance in an online regional anatomy course during the Covid‐19 pandemic

Zhang

Zilundu

et al. 2022

The present study evaluated the students' psychological well-being, experiences, performance, and perception of learning regional anatomy remotely. A regional anatomy remote learning curriculum was designed and learning materials were delivered virtually to 120 undergraduate medical students at Jinan University, China. All the students consented and voluntarily participated in this study by completing self-administered online questionnaires including the Zung's Self-Rating Anxiety and Depression Scales at the beginning and end of the learning session. A subset participated in focus group discussions. Most of the students (90.0%) positively evaluated the current distance learning model. More than 80% were satisfied with the content arrangement and coverage. Many students preferred virtual lectures (68.2%) and videos showing dissections (70.6%) during the distance learning sessions. However, writing laboratory reports and case-based learning were the least preferred modes of learning as they were only preferred by 23.2% and 14.1% of the students, respectively. There was no significant lockdown-related anxiety or depression reported by students using depression and anxiety scales as well as feedback from focus group discussions. The surveyed students' confidence scores in distance learning were significantly higher after 5 weeks than at the beginning of the session (3.05 ± 0.83 vs. 3.70 ± 0.71, P < 0.05).Furthermore, the present results showed no significant differences between the current group's academic performance in the unit tests as well as the final overall evaluation for different parts of the course compared to that of the previous year's cohort.The findings above were congruent with focus group discussion data that the use of the online teaching platform for regional anatomy significantly improved the students' confidence in virtual and self-directed learning and did not negatively affect their academic performance.