Cadaver‐based practicals versus electronic practicals: Same students, different exams

At the University of New England, physical therapy doctoral students participate in a prosection‐based human cadaver laboratory and take cadaver‐based practical exams as part of their anatomy and neuroscience courses. Some students can't take their exams as scheduled, due to illness, family emergency or scheduling conflicts. To deal with these situations, an alternative electronic practical exam was developed as a substitute for the cadaver‐based practical examinations. All students fully participated in the cadaver‐based laboratory sessions prior to the electronic practical examinations. Students chose to take the electronic practical even though they were fully aware that they would lose the 3 dimensional and realistic size perspective of the laboratory practical. This is a report on the results of those electronic practical examinations compared to the results of the lab practical examinations taken in the laboratory on cadaver‐based practical examinations. When electronic format practical examination scores were compared to cadaver‐based practical examination scores, there was no statistical difference between the student averages taking the two exams.