Effects of Prior Anatomy Coursework on Assessment Performance and Study Habits

Abstract

Students entering health science fields often take multiple human anatomy courses throughout their education, including settings such as high school, community colleges/technical schools, and 4‐year undergraduate universities. Additionally, it is not uncommon for students to retake a human anatomy course during their undergraduate careers if they are not satisfied with their initial performance. While research has shown that final grade performance improves for those retaking the same undergraduate course, it is unclear whether previous anatomy coursework in high school, community college, or other undergraduate university settings confers the same advantage on course performance or influences study methods employed in the course. In other words, students who have had experience in anatomical coursework may have developed effective study approaches before taking a more advanced anatomy course. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of previous human anatomy coursework on lecture and lab exam performance and study habits in an undergraduate human anatomy course at a large state university in Tennessee for the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 academic years (N = 442).The course enrollment consists of nursing, kinesiology, or pre‐professional undergraduate majors, of which more than half (53%) are sophomores, and the remainder juniors (17.5%) and seniors (29.5%). We collected data from students at midterm through an anonymous survey. Students self‐reported their performance on assessments for the first major examination in the course, which has a written lecture component and a practical lab component. The survey also included questions about previous anatomy coursework, prior enrollment in the current course, study habits through a range of modalities, and use of extracurricular resources. We performed nonparametric Kruskal‐Wallis tests to examine the relationship between prior anatomy experience and performance on initial lecture and lab assessments, as well as study methods. Results indicate that no significant difference in first lecture or lab assessment performance is associated with prior anatomy coursework, regardless of prior course setting (high school versus college). Additionally, prior coursework in anatomy is not associated with a significant difference in when students began studying for their first lecture/lab assessments. There is a trend for students with prior coursework in anatomy to perform slightly better on assessments than those who had not. In addition, preliminary analysis of study modalities shows that students with prior anatomical experience do not engage in study methods different from those who have not taken an anatomy course before.