Purpose
Anatomy remains a foundational and critical component of health science education. Teaching donor dissection largely relies on paper-back, spiral-bound manuals that are discipline-non-specific. In-house structure lists lack context and guided instruction necessary to perform pre-requisite steps to identify target structures. Thus, there is a need to look ahead in this virtual digital era. We propose a simple, time- and cost-efficient way to enhance learning and discuss the outcomes and feedback gained during the creation and revision of an interactive “eDissection” manual.
Methods
An eDissection manual was created using Rise 360 within Articulate 360 and exported as an HTML file hosted on SharePoint. Multiple cohorts of health science learners were encouraged to access SharePoint and use the eDissection manual. Short Qualtrics evaluation surveys requesting a ranking of each course from 0 (not at all helpful) to 10 (extremely helpful) as well as two free text responses: what was most helpful and what needs to be changed were used to guide revision to the manual.
Results
Responses indicated that learners found the modules helpful in guiding dissection (8.8/10 ± 1.3) and understanding content (8.6/10 ± 1.5). The modules were easier to follow than traditional manuals and were preferred to alleviate prep anxiety and provide knowledge about specific expectations. Improvement suggestions included more videos, tagged structures on donors that the students could identify on their own, and more active learning and retrieval practice activities. We updated the eDissection manual with interactive Storyline 360 content and knowledge checks to continuously improve the learner experience.
Conclusion
It is possible to innovate in one of the oldest, most fundamental courses in health science education. This eDissection manual tailored to the specific learning objectives for our institution is the first that we have seen described. This innovation is shareable and can be tailored to other institutions thus enhancing teaching in the virtual digital era.