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The Human Anatomy Laboratory Companion: A Teaching Tool Created by Students, for Students
Author(s) -
Forster Victoria Nicole,
Jadeski Lorraine
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.lb12
Subject(s) - human anatomy , dissection (medical) , medical education , curriculum , gross anatomy , mathematics education , computer science , anatomy , psychology , medicine , pedagogy
Anatomy is a field that lends itself to a wide range of teaching methodologies depending on student numbers, course level, time constraints, and the level of anatomical detail addressed. The University of Guelph continuously provides high quality human anatomy education to undergraduate students. The program offers dissection‐ and prosection‐based courses at the first, third and fourth year levels of undergraduate study. The combined enrolment in all human anatomy courses is approximately 1000 students per academic year. An ongoing challenge is to continue to provide a very high level of human anatomy education to our students with the available resources. The aim of this project is to develop a ‘companion’ or dissection‐based laboratory manual that: 1) specifically targets curricular goals and course learning objectives, 2) promotes self‐sufficient learning in the laboratory, and 3) increases the efficiency in which material is taught in the laboratory. Fundamental to this laboratory companion is the incorporation of high quality digital images of cadaveric‐based dissections, and has the unique characteristic that it is ‘created by students, for students’. Upper year students who have previously taken the two‐semester dissection‐based course, contribute to the development of the companion, as part of course requirements for a subsequent Teaching, Learning and Knowledge Transfer (TLKT) experience. Thus, these students (TLKT) work closely with faculty and graduate students to prepare detailed, precise and step‐wise dissections that are captured digitally, and incorporated into this resource. Significant progress has been made in developing the framework for the companion, as dissections and digital images have been created. Preliminary data has been collected from students during the Winter 2017 semester of the third year course, with the use of questionnaires (n=305). The results show that this educational tool is desired by students to help them prepare for and review laboratory course content and excel independently. Subsequent to the development of the companion, it will be implemented as a learning resource in the dissection (HK*3401) and prosection (HK*3501) courses at the University of Guelph. The pedagogical impact will be investigated through comparison with historic controls and will be measured using student performance and student perception of the course experience as outcomes.