The Use of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Anatomy Teaching

Abstract

Background -There is a demand for new and efficient tools to teach anatomical sciences. Rapid developments in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) mean educational use of the technology is becoming increasingly viable. However, uptake of this technology in anatomy teaching is still limited. This brief review aims to examine the effectiveness of VR/AR in anatomy teaching and includes evaluation of: head mounted devices (HMDs), stereoscopic projectors and screens, AR Magic Mirrors and AR Magic Books.Methods -PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched for relevant articles from 2013 to 29 th June 2018.Results -Students' academic performance was equal to or better than control methods for all four types of technology. All studies found high levels of student satisfaction for VR/AR teaching methods.Discussion -Various confounding factors and the large heterogeneity between studies are likely to have a major impact on results. Further research into the depth and longevity of learning in the different teaching methods, as well as their cost-effectiveness, would be beneficial for prospective institutions.

Self-Regulated Learning Strategies for Nursing Students: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Recently, research on the effects of anatomical learning using AR or VR is being actively conducted [ 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Previous studies reported that the educational effect of AR is that learners can study and train safely and repeatedly, regardless of location or time [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Percepción del uso de aplicaciones 3D de anatomía humana en estudiantes de Kinesiología

“…Esto implica una diferencia fundamental en el punto de vista. La mayoría de las investigaciones latinoamericanas de introducción a la anatomía 3D, dan por sentado que el software por sí mismo representa una mejora en el rendimiento del estudiante [20][21][22] ignorando los estudios en ciencias cognitivas que evidenciaron desorientación en rotaciones no controladas [24][25][26][27][28][29] .…”

“…Otras investigaciones provenientes de la psicología cognitiva, la inteligencia artificial y la Human Computer Interaction (HCI), han desarrollado enfoques experimentales para evaluar el rendimiento cognitivo de la interacción con objetos tridimensionales, con miras al desarrollo de aplicaciones. Han obtenido resultados en su mayoría favorables, pero han detectado algunos inconvenientes en torno a la manipulación del 3D como recurso de aprendizaje, que han dado lugar a propuestas de actualización de los diseños de aplicaciones [24][25][26][27][28][29] .…”

Different approaches for teaching and learning anatomy and future directions

“…Students who used mobile AR had significantly higher test scores than those used text, two-dimensional pictures and graphs, are reported (Küçük et al, 43 2016). These technologies are still innovative and research on the usefulness is rare (Heather et al, 44 2019).…”