Reorganizing Small Animal Gross Anatomy: Improving the Faculty and Student Experience and Incorporating Non-technical Competency Development

The organization of the small animal gross anatomy course at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine was modified in several ways over a two-year period. These modifications were motivated in part by the need to accommodate a larger number of students, but also by our desire to make more efficient use of faculty and student time as well as physical resources and to give our students opportunities to develop non-technical competencies such as communication and teamwork skills. The four major changes were (1) increasing dissection group size, (2) assigning specimens to dissection groups on a rotating basis, (3) reducing the amount of dissection time relative to time spent studying prepared specimens, and (4) introducing ‘‘transition reviews,’’ a limited form of peer teaching meant to emphasize peer interaction and communication skills rather than conveyance of specific and detailed subject matter. This article describes the details of these changes and evaluates their effectiveness based on faculty assessments, results from surveys of participating students, and comparison of examination performance and formal end-of-course student evaluations before and after reorganization of the course. Increasing the dissection group size and reducing per-student dissection time did not adversely affect student performance and were viewed at least neutrally or favorably by most students. Notably, the rotation of specimens and the transition reviews elicited strongly favorable responses from a large majority of students and had several beneficial effects of which students may not have been aware but which were apparent to participating faculty. Overall, the changes were well received by both faculty and students and were, in our view, of sufficient value that this course organization plan would be used regardless of class size.