A Novel, Mutually Beneficial Student-Faculty Partnership to Develop Real-Time Formative Assessments Aligning with the Preclinical Undergraduate Medical Curriculum.

PROBLEM: A shortage of curriculum-aligned formative multiple-choice questions (FMCQs) remains despite their known learning benefits in preclinical medical education due to limitations on teaching faculty time and other reasons. In response, students often use extramural resources such as commercial or collaborative question banks; however, these options are often expensive and cannot be aligned with the content of each school's unique curriculum. In addition, students need feedback on their learning in a manner that parallels the format of summative assessments. In this pilot, the authors aimed to enhance student learning by creating an intramural formative practice resource that was developed as the curriculum unfolded under the direction of the faculty leading the concurrently running curricular units. APPROACH: The authors developed a workflow known as Professor-Reviewed Exam Practice (PREP) in 2023. PREP partnered preclinical medical students and faculty to create vignette-style, single best response FMCQs with feedback for every lecture and self-guided learning module in multiple preclinical blocks of The Ohio State University College of Medicine undergraduate medical curriculum. OUTCOMES: PREP established a sustainable, student-led, faculty-guided workflow that created high-quality, curriculum-aligned FMCQs for student use in the preclinical medical curriculum over a 14-month period. Usage rates were high across multiple preclinical blocks, reflecting high student demand for FMCQs of this nature and their value as a study aid. Survey data showed faculty agreed that their time commitment and role in the PREP workflow was appropriate. NEXT STEPS: Future work will evaluate the benefits of PREP to students by exploring the potential impact of PREP FMCQs on summative assessment performance and if writing FMCQs confers benefits to PREP team members. Faculty survey indicated that performance data from PREP FMCQs could be used to tailor upcoming teaching and learning methods, which is an area for future inquiry.

Effects of using superheroes in an undergraduate human anatomy curriculum.

Students often find human anatomy courses to be difficult due to the large amount of content covered at a fast pace, which can result in students failing to retain pertinent information. Superheroes are at the forefront of today's popular culture, with many students identifying with specific characters. Utilizing aspects of students' lives, or their agency, that they can resonate with in the classroom, such as their interests in superheroes or personal connections to fictional characters, may help drive students' motivation to learn course content. This study investigated if the use of superheroes in an anatomy curriculum helped undergraduate students learn, apply, and improve their anatomical knowledge. Two courses at The Ohio State University-Columbus Campus, one with a superhero-based curriculum and one with a traditional anatomy curriculum were compared over three semesters using quizzes and survey data. Results from this project found that the use of superheroes/pop culture in anatomy education is an effective way to teach content. The study also showed that most students found the use of superheroes increased their motivation to learn, helped them gain a deeper understanding of the material, and helped them find the content more approachable and enjoyable. In summary, anatomy curricula can still be taught and explained through these creative and "marvel"-ous examples as it can help students connect the material to their own agency and drive motivation to learn.

Essential anatomy for core clerkships: A clinical perspective.

Clerkships are defining experiences for medical students in which students integrate basic science knowledge with clinical information as they gain experience in diagnosing and treating patients in a variety of clinical settings. Among the basic sciences, there is broad agreement that anatomy is foundational for medical practice. Unfortunately, there are longstanding concerns that student knowledge of anatomy is below the expectations of clerkship directors and clinical faculty. Most allopathic medical schools require eight "core" clerkships: internal medicine (IM), pediatrics (PD), general surgery (GS), obstetrics and gynecology (OB), psychiatry (PS), family medicine (FM), neurology (NU), and emergency medicine (EM). A targeted needs assessment was conducted to determine the anatomy considered important for each core clerkship based on the perspective of clinicians teaching in those clerkships. A total of 525 clinical faculty were surveyed at 24 United States allopathic medical schools. Participants rated 97 anatomical structure groups across all body regions on a 1-4 Likert-type scale (1 = not important, 4 = essential). Non-parametric ANOVAs determined if differences existed between clerkships. Combining all responses, 91% of anatomical structure groups were classified as essential or more important. Clinicians in FM, EM, and GS rated anatomical structures in most body regions significantly higher than at least one other clerkship (p = 0.006). This study provides an evidence-base of anatomy content that should be considered important for each core clerkship and may assist in the development and/or revision of preclinical curricula to support the clinical training of medical students.

Adaptation of an anatomy graduate course in ultrasound imaging from in-person to live, remote instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health concerns during the Covid-19 pandemic required the adaptation of a lecture-laboratory course in ultrasound imaging for graduate students from an in-person to a live, remote learning format. The adaptation of in-person lectures to live, remote delivery was achieved by using videoconferencing. The adaptation of in-person laboratory sessions to live, remote instruction was achieved in the first half of the course by providing a hand-held ultrasound instrument to each student who performed self-scanning at their remote locations, while the instructor provided live instruction using videoconferencing. In the second half of the course, the students transitioned to using cart-based, hospital-type instruments and self-scanning in the ultrasound laboratory on campus. The aim of this study was to measure the success of this adaptation to the course by comparing assessment scores of students in the live, remote course with assessment scores of students in the in-person course offered in the previous year. There were no statistically significant differences in the assessment scores of students in the two courses. The adaptation of a course in ultrasound imaging from an in-person to a live, remote learning format during the Covid-19 pandemic described here suggests that contrary to the prevailing view, ultrasound imaging can be taught to students without in-person instruction. The adapted course can serve as a model for teaching ultrasound where instructors and learners are physically separated by constraints other than health concerns during a pandemic.

Anatomists Assemble! Integrating superheroes into the anatomy and physiology classroom.

Anatomy and physiology courses are sometimes seen as difficult, which can lead to a lack of motivation in students to learn and engage in the course material. Students may also see the material as "dry," have issues forming personal connections, or struggle to connect the content to the real world. These issues may lead to students not performing well in the course or feeling that the health field is not ideal for them. Popular culture, especially mainstream superheroes, can serve as an option for mending these gaps by being a gateway to connecting to many students' lives. Superheroes can be integrated into the classroom through relevant, creative, and unique examples that include clinical correlates, modern scientific innovations, and some real-life "supers" living among us. Real anatomy and physiology can still be taught and explained through discussing these "incredible" examples and also present an opportunity for students to be creative in generating their own anatomical and physiological explanations for various superpowers. Superheroes also help open the classroom up to being a place of acceptance, primarily through their secret identities, which cover a broad range of idols that students can look up to, whether it is their career or based on a character's race or sexual orientation. Professors can become the superhero in their classroom and help students become more engaged and interested in the material.

A Novel Approach to Gross Dissection of the Human Pelvis and Perineum.

Progressive curricular changes in medical education over the past two decades have resulted in the diaspora of gross anatomy content into integrated curricula while significantly reducing total contact hours. Despite the development of a wide range of alternative teaching modalities, gross dissection remains a critical component of medical education. The challenge posed to modern anatomists is how to maximize and integrate the time spent dissecting under the current curricular changes. In this study, an alternative approach to the dissection of the pelvis and perineum is presented in an effort to improve content delivery and student satisfaction. The approach involves removal of the perineum en bloc from the cadaver followed by excision of the pubic symphysis, removal and examination of the bladder and associated structures, examination and bisection of the midline pelvic organs in situ, and midsagittal hemisection of the pelvis for identification of the neurovasculature. Results indicate that this novel dissecting approach increases the number of structures identified by 46% ± 14% over current dissecting methods. Survey results indicate that students were better able to integrate lecture and laboratory concepts, understand the concepts, and successfully identify more structures using the new approach (P < 0.05). The concept of anatomic efficiency is introduced and proposed as a standard quantitative measure of gross dissection proficiency across programs and institutions. These findings provide evidence that innovative solutions to anatomy education can be found that help to maintain critical content and student satisfaction in a modern medical curriculum.

What type of learner are your students? Preferred learning styles of undergraduate gross anatomy students according to the index of learning styles questionnaire.

Students learn and process information in many different ways. Learning styles are useful as they allow instructors to learn more about students, as well as aid in the development and application of useful teaching approaches and techniques. At the undergraduate level there is a noticeable lack of research on learning style preferences of students enrolled in gross anatomy courses. The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in a large enrollment undergraduate gross anatomy course with laboratory to determine their preferred learning styles. The predominant preferred learning styles of the students (n = 505) enrolled in the gross anatomy course were active (54.9%), sensing (85.1%), visual (81.2%), and sequential (74.4%). Preferred learning styles profiles of particular majors enrolled in the course were also constructed; analyses showed minor variation in the active/reflective dimension. An understanding of students' preferred learning styles can guide course design but it should not be implemented in isolation. It can be strengthened (or weakened) by concurrent use of other tools (e.g., flipped classroom course design). Based on the preferred learning styles of the majority of undergraduate students in this particular gross anatomy course, course activities can be hands on (i.e., active), grounded in concrete information (i.e., sensing), utilize visual representation such as images, figures, models, etc. (i.e., visual), and move in small incremental steps that build on each topic (i.e., sequential). Anat Sci Educ 11: 358-365. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.