Abstract
The use of Augmented Reality (AR) in anatomical education has been promoted by numerous authors. Next to financial and ethical advantages, AR has been described to decrease cognitive load while increasing student motivation and engagement. Despite these advantages, the effects of AR on learning outcome varies in different studies and an overview and aggregated outcome on learning anatomy is lacking. Therefore, a meta-analysis on the effect of AR vs. traditional anatomical teaching methods on learning outcome was performed. Systematic database searches were conducted by two independent investigators using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This yielded five papers for meta-analysis totaling 508 participants; 240 participants in the AR-groups and 268 participants in the control groups. (306 females/202 males). Meta-analysis showed no significant difference in anatomic test scores between the AR group and the control group (− 0.765 percentage-points (%-points); P = 0.732). Sub analysis on the use of AR vs. the use of traditional 2D teaching methods showed a significant disadvantage when using AR (− 5.685%-points; P = 0.024). Meta-regression analysis showed no significant co-relation between mean difference in test results and spatial abilities (as assessed by the mental rotations test scores). Student motivation and/or engagement could not be included since studies used different assessment tools. This meta-analysis showed that insufficient evidence is present to conclude AR significantly impacts learning outcome and that outcomes are significantly impacted by students’ spatial abilities. However, only few papers were suitable for meta-analysis, indicating that there is a need for more well-designed, randomized-controlled trials on AR in anatomy education research.
Highlights
The present study focuses on the effectiveness of learning anatomy by students by use of Augmented Reality (AR) and was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines[18]
The use of cadavers and/or prosections form the cornerstone of anatomical education for medical and biomedical sciences students, various limitations constrain their use
The results from the present meta-analysis partially conflict with the results from the meta-analysis of Yammine and Violato (2015) in which it was found that three dimensional visualization techniques (1) resulted in higher factual knowledge, (2) yielded significant better resulted in spatial knowledge acquisition, and (3) produced significant increase in user satisfaction and in learners’ perception of the effectiveness of the learning tool[8]
Summary
This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of AR in anatomy education
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