Margaret McNulty, School of Medicine
Principal Investigator: Margaret McNulty, assistant professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine
Co-Principal Investigators: Jessica N. Byram, assistant professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine
Project Title: Development and Implementation of an Anatomy Dissection Guide Digital Ecosystem
Funding Level: $9,576
Abstract:
Education faculty within the Anatomy & Cell Biology Department are tasked with educating hundreds of students enrolled in dissection-based anatomy courses, from undergraduate to professional level. Therefore, it is important that faculty have the ability to maintain flexibility in establishing learning objectives while preserving continuity in the anatomical material that is taught. However, the dissection guides used to steer students through their self-directed cadaveric dissections are static materials with little to no ability to adapt to the changing needs of different student populations with different learning objectives. This creates confusion among students within the laboratory as to what specific material they need to know and how to perform the dissections. It is evident that many institutions are moving towards generating “in-house” dissection guides to overcome these substantial limitations of published anatomy dissection guides. Therefore, the overall goal of this proposal is to develop and implement a modifiable dissection guide digital ecosystem that can be used to effectively teach both undergraduate and doctoral-level allied health students. The resource will be housed on a licensed online platform, and will include clear instructions for how to proceed through dissection of a cadaver that is appropriate for each student population. The resource will align with each course’s learning objectives and include active learning activities that will encourage engagement with course content during the self-direct learning that occurs in the anatomy laboratory. It is expected that development of this resource will improve the students’ learning of anatomy and their overall experience within the courses.
