RESUMO
Background: One of the most important indicators of the quality of education and academic achievement is students' academic engagement, and the progress of using online education has fundamentally changed the learning-teaching processes Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effect of two methods of online education based on Sweller's cognitive load theory and online education in a conventional method on the academic engagement of medical students in anatomy. Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental study with two groups not identical to the before and after design. To collect information, the Shuffle and Becker academic engagement questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha of 0.85 was used. The subject was 104 basic science students. General medicine students were divided by non-random method into two groups of intervention (n = 52) and control (n = 52). After the intervention, a post-test was taken. After collecting data, this data was entered into SPSS software version 24. Results: The results of the independent t-test showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of academic engagement in the control and intervention groups after the intervention and also, the results of the dependent t-test showed that online teaching of anatomy course based on Sweller's cognitive load theory has a positive and significant effect on medical students' academic engagement. Conclusion: Considering the results of this study and the significant effect of online education based on cognitive theory, it is suggested that teachers and educators be educated about the basic principles of load cognitive theory so that they can apply these principles due to the limited capacity of active memory.
