How Virtual Animal Anatomy facilitated a successful transition to online instruction and supported student learning during the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

Anatomy faculty with cadaver‐based laboratory courses were presented with a significant challenge in March 2020 to create equivalent learning experiences without cadaveric access. The undergraduate domestic animal anatomy course at the Colorado State University was halfway into a 16‐week semester when COVID‐19 lockdown orders and the transition to remote instruction began. The new course curriculum was critically evaluated using student surveys and course outcome data. Most students (92.5%) agreed that the transition to online learning was a success; however, students who valued face‐to‐face lectures prior to March were less likely to perceive the transition as a success. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of survey results suggest that the resources perceived as most helpful for the transition to online learning were not the same as those that helped facilitate animal anatomy learning. Most students (92.5%) agreed that the Virtual Animal Anatomy (VAA) helped them learn anatomy, and 82.2% indicated that the VAA was a valuable resource following the transition to online learning. Additional resources associated with transition success included course instructors, weekly quizzes, written descriptions of anatomical structures and open laboratory sessions. In contrast, those resources associated with facilitating learning included guided quizzes and asynchronous lecture recordings. These findings suggest that the VAA can support online anatomy learning when used in conjunction with other best practices for online teaching.

New virtual platform for teaching comparative animal neuroanatomy based on metameric slices of the central nervous system

“…Besides provoking the expressive and sorrowful number of deaths, the COVID‐19 pandemic also prompted unprecedented interruption in the global education (Bauler et al, 2022; Chinelatto et al, 2020; Evans et al, 2020; Franchi, 2020; Ray & Srivastava, 2020; Singal et al, 2020). Courses from all levels and fields were forced to adapt to the online environment in response to the social distance (Camargo et al, 2020; Evans et al, 2020; Franchi, 2020; Gill et al, 2020; Harmon et al, 2021; Martin et al, 2022; Pather et al, 2020; Totlis et al, 2021), including the anatomy. Instead of cadaveric dissection and museum visits, virtual dissections, online software, and technological resources had to be applied (Cuschieri & Calleja, 2020; Darras et al, 2019; Guevar, 2020; Harmon et al, 2021; Hennessy & Smith, 2020; Iwanaga et al, 2021; Jones, 2019; Keenan & Awadh, 2019; Naidoo et al, 2020), leaving professors with the challenge to suddenly recreate teaching methods that were as efficient as the experiences in the classroom lessons (Bauler et al, 2022; Byrnes et al, 2021; Longhurst et al, 2020; Martin et al, 2022; Pather et al, 2020).…”

“…Courses from all levels and fields were forced to adapt to the online environment in response to the social distance (Camargo et al, 2020; Evans et al, 2020; Franchi, 2020; Gill et al, 2020; Harmon et al, 2021; Martin et al, 2022; Pather et al, 2020; Totlis et al, 2021), including the anatomy. Instead of cadaveric dissection and museum visits, virtual dissections, online software, and technological resources had to be applied (Cuschieri & Calleja, 2020; Darras et al, 2019; Guevar, 2020; Harmon et al, 2021; Hennessy & Smith, 2020; Iwanaga et al, 2021; Jones, 2019; Keenan & Awadh, 2019; Naidoo et al, 2020), leaving professors with the challenge to suddenly recreate teaching methods that were as efficient as the experiences in the classroom lessons (Bauler et al, 2022; Byrnes et al, 2021; Longhurst et al, 2020; Martin et al, 2022; Pather et al, 2020). However, even with the most effort, it is known that practical classes cannot be perfectly simulated and substituted, especially when involving a content as complex as comparative neuroanatomy (Patra et al, 2021; Ravi, 2020).…”