The Effectiveness of Self‐paced Activities for Anatomy Instruction in a Case‐based Medical Curriculum

OBJECTIVE At the GRU/UGA Medical Partnership, gross anatomy is integrated throughout the first year. Our basic sciences curriculum is built around student small group discussions of weekly cases. Case discussions account for six hours of scheduled time each week, leaving limited time for face‐to‐face anatomy instruction. One way that we mitigate this time limitation is by delivering anatomy content via student self‐paced activities (SPAs). SPAs are content resources for specific topics that students complete on their own; no in‐class time accompanies a SPA. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of our SPAs as content delivery tools for gross anatomy, to compare their success to more traditional anatomy lectures, and to gauge student opinions of anatomy SPAs and lectures. METHODS An analysis was performed of student performance on assessment items, comparing items mapped to content delivered via SPA versus content delivered via in‐class session. A survey was conducted to poll student opinions of SPAs and learn about their usage patterns (e.g.: when, how, and how long students study them), with comparisons to in‐class anatomy sessions. Two years (encompassing two classes) of student exam questions have been analyzed and both classes surveyed. RESULTS Class average performance on USMLE‐style multiple choice assessment items mapped to SPA content was not statistically different to performance on questions coming from lecture content, and the discrimination power of those questions was similar as well. The majority of students study SPAs alone. Students estimate that they spend a statistically similar amount of time studying a single SPA as they do studying the content from a one‐hour lecture. Few students reported feeling that SPAs are too lengthy or that SPAs take too much time. Student opinions of SPAs are positive. There are few anatomy topics currently covered in SPA format that students would prefer be provided in lecture format. Anatomy SPAs currently have no audio voiceover content, and half of the class stated that they would like such content added to anatomy SPAs. CONCLUSION Self‐paced activities can help to mitigate the limited in‐class instructional time allotted to gross anatomy education, especially in case‐based curricula that must dedicate large amounts of time to small group case discussions. SPAs can free‐up in‐class time for more complex topics that benefit from student‐faculty and student‐student interaction or that can be adapted into active learning sessions. Critical to the success of SPAs is selecting topics appropriate to the self‐paced format; material that would otherwise be delivered via didactic lecture is well‐suited to delivery via SPA. It is unclear at this point the extent to which gross anatomy labs aid student retention of SPA material as virtually all anatomy SPAs at the Medical Partnership are assigned during weeks in which students are dissecting that same anatomy (e.g.: the Anatomy of the Thigh SPA is to be completed the week that students are also dissecting the thigh), and this is true of anatomy lectures as well.