Integrated Streaming of Anatomy Dissection during Lecture Hours

Abstract

Streaming of live faculty anatomy dissections was utilized to teach clinically relevant gross anatomy to first‐year Physician Assistant students during the summer of 2021 to correlate lecture with relevant dissection part. The online anatomy dissections by faculty were integrated with PowerPoint presentations before onsite dissection laboratory periods by the students.MATERIAL AND METHODSThe PA students viewed the dissections via zoom sessions during lecture hours coordinated by lecture presenter. During their six weeks of study, each session was scheduled for one hour lecture, followed by 3 hours of dissections. At the beginning of each session, ten quiz questions relative to prior sessions were asked to enhance students’ retention and recall. Following the daily online practical quizzes, students watched step by step dissection and power point lecture integrated with relevant slides and/or cross‐sections. During three hour laboratory time of each daily session, students were divided into small groups to dissect anatomy region for that day assisted by faculty member. Sixty four percent of the PA Class of 2023 completed an anonymous electronic survey at the conclusion of the course.The online survey of the enrolled PA students (n=40) in their first‐year training identified that the online dissections and the teaching format were extremely beneficial to their learning. Ninety seven percent of the students strongly agreed or agreed that the streaming of anatomy dissections was helpful in learning the assigned anatomy. Ninety five percent of the students strongly agreed or agreed that integrated power point presentations were beneficial, and Ninety five percent of the students strongly agreed or agreed that daily integrated quizzes (self‐assessment modules) were beneficial for their retention and recall. Although setting up online dissections and integrating the streaming dissections with relevant power points were time‐intensive, the teaching faculty viewed the online teaching experiences as effective means to further develop students’ knowledge base of anatomy education.