Anatomy Online Teaching During Covid‐19 Pandemic: The Need for Responsive Anatomy Learning Ecosystem

Abstract

artificial intelligence to detect brain anomalies in an unsupervised manner (Baur et al., 2021).Datasets of MRIs of diseases including microangiopathy, glioblastoma, and multiple sclerosis were assessed with both supervised and unsupervised U-net models. The unsupervised deep learning model was ultimately very effective in detecting wide range of brain anomalies (Baur et al., 2021). Studies like this demonstrate that we are in the digital age of medicine, and students should be trained in artificial intelligence to be successful with these new technologies.Anatomy 3D software packages may be beneficial but are costly. Instead, we feel that institutions should start preparing and storing their own recorded practical sessions and other electronic resources in their departmental repositories to prepare for future lockdown situations. One caveat is that online sessions do require fast internet connection with adequate bandwidth. Remote areas with decreased technology infrastructure will be disproportionality affected by this. We feel that a proper responsive ecosystem needs to be created for active online learning. We think that more e-learning methods and virtual community platforms based on various social, educational, cultural, financial and geographical diversities could better learning outcomes. Modern learning materials, interactive media, information technology, and new devices can provide a better learning ecosystem. Teaching has to be made a community property (Hutchins, 1996).As stated in recent editorial, anatomists need to be leaders and should demonstrate skills to cope up with crisis in addition to being educators (Smith and Pawlina, 2021). Anatomy educators have a bigger role to play and must learn from the benefits and shortcomings of teaching methods employed during the Covid-19 pandemic.We applaud the excellent work by the authors and thank the editor for publishing such an important article.

Evaluation of the online learning of veterinary anatomy education during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdown in Egypt: Students' perceptions

“…The shift to emergency remote learning requires adaptation of the learning materials and teaching methods to be suitable for the online setting (Evans et al, 2020; Smith & Pawlina, 2021). Therefore, institutions and anatomists should increase efforts to modify the anatomy curriculum and integrate virtual dissection (Alsharif et al, 2020; Nazeefa, 2021; Bond & Franchi, 2021) and artificial intelligence in teaching anatomy (Remtulla, 2020; Das & Al Mushaiqri, 2021). In contrast, students prefer blended learning in studying anatomy, in which both face‐to‐face teaching and online lectures are included (Ocak & Topal, 2015; Singh & Min, 2017; Nazeefa, 2021).…”

Digital Feast and Physical Famine: The Altered Ecosystem of Anatomy Education due to the Covid‐19 Pandemic

“…The affordances and constraints of individual species within this complex ecosystem do not entirely determine their future. Based on the sustainability that the digital cadaver has demonstrated during the pandemic, it makes sense to speculate whether or not this technology could help address other challenges within the anatomy laboratory ecosystem or even facilitate desired change (Bogomolova et al, 2021; Das and Mushaiqri, 2021; Evans and Pawlina, 2021; Evans, 2021).…”

“…If a digital cadaver is considered as a process in addition to an artifact, other aspects of the ecosystem must also be considered such as the source of the software (Franchi, 2020; Das and Mushaiqri, 2021), access to adequate devices (Pacheco et al, 2020), and access to a sufficient internet connection (Jones, 2020). Unless the holistic system is taken into consideration, increased reliance on digital cadavers within the anatomy laboratory ecosystem also has the potential to accentuate inequity issues (Jones, 2020; Naidoo et al, 2021).…”

Evaluation of views and perceptions of the medical faculty students about distance anatomy education during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Contributions to the literature in the early period after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic mainly consist of comments from faculty members, letters to the editor, and announcing the general reactions of the universities of the countries [ 1 , 9 , 11 , 17 , 24 ].…”