Efficacy of Gross Anatomy Cadaver Online Video Learning Modules in First‐Year Physical Therapy Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if online video modules (videos) identifying dissected cadaveric structures improve physical therapy students' learning and understanding of Gross Anatomy material assessed by performance on laboratory practicals. Current research in other disciplines suggests utilizing online resources will benefit students' learning of complex material. However, a gap in the research exists in relation to the benefits of video usage within the population of physical therapy students learning gross anatomy. A cohort of 110 first‐year Doctorate of Physical Therapy students were included in the study. Six interactive videos were created that taught the identification and relationships of multiple anatomic structures of varying levels of difficulty. Subjects viewed the videos prior to corresponding in‐person laboratory session. A likert‐scale and open‐ended questionnaire was administered to assess overall usefulness of videos and students' confidence with the material covered in the cadaveric videos. Video metadata was collected and analyzed to deduce student usage of the videos throughout the course. In addition, student practical exam scores were analyzed to compare accuracy of identifying structures discussed in the videos compared to structures not discussed in the videos of relative difficulty. The results provided evidence to support implementing interactive video modules to improve practical exam performance and confidence of material in a gross anatomy course for physical therapy students.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Responding to Covid‐19: A thematic analysis of students' perspectives on modified learning activities during an emergency transition to remote human anatomy education

“…In human anatomy, a major benefit to the flipped classroom approach could be the integration of laboratory‐adjacent materials that students can access from home. Offering cadaver‐based videos as supplemental at‐home learning resources has been shown to increase student satisfaction and lead to improvements in laboratory grades (Poletti et al, 2018; Topping, 2014). Similarly, students in this study insisted that they would have preferred and benefited greatly from more and higher‐quality cadaver‐based learning resources.…”