Physical Therapy Student Knowledge Retention from a Remotely Taught Anatomy Course

Abstract

IntroductionA whole‐body donor anatomy course is a foundational learning experience for additional musculoskeletal courses for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students. The summer 2020 human anatomy course at the University of Missouri was taught remotely with daily asynchronous and synchronous components. The DPT students were evaluated with online multiple‐choice lecture and picture‐based lab practical exams. Due to the novel nature of the course, student knowledge retention and interpretation of three‐dimensional anatomy is unknown.AimThe purpose of this study was to evaluate student retention of anatomy knowledge from the remotely taught course, test if students can identify structures on anatomical donors in a laboratory setting that they previously identified on picture online exams and survey the students’ prior anatomy experiences.MethodsA 90‐minute in‐person laboratory session was held seven months after the completion of the remote anatomy course for first year DPT students. Students’ previous anatomical course work and opinions of remote and lab learning were assessed with a survey. Prior to entering the anatomy lab, the students completed a multiple‐choice retention quiz of eight questions from the four‐unit exams that all students previously answered correctly. During the laboratory session, students worked in pairs to answer fifteen questions and identify some of the same structures from the retention quiz on the donors.ResultsEvery student had taken at least one undergraduate course as a requirement for DPT school admission or as part of their major. All the students described benefits to a lab‐based anatomy course compared to a remote course and a majority emphasized the hands‐on and spatial learning in their comments. Most students (73.7%) also believed there were some advantages from the remote course, including having additional study time, cost savings, and more individualized learning. Fifty‐nine of the 60 students in the remote anatomy course took the retention quiz and the average score was 86.7% (range 62.5% ‐ 100%). Students performed well on the musculoskeletal questions on the lab identification quiz.ConclusionThe physical therapy students from this remote anatomy course had slightly higher retention scores than most studies of health professions students’, particularly in topics that were repeated throughout their first‐year courses.SignificanceThe study supports the importance of whole‐body donor anatomy lab learning for students and the importance of flexibility, and ample inclusive access to learning materials for students.