Use of OneNote as a Platform for Anatomical Education

Abstract

In anatomy courses, medical students are often overwhelmed by a daunting amount of resources, e.g., videos, podcasts, lectures, readings, anatomical plates, live demonstrations, and hands‐on dissections. Organizing a myriad of multi‐media materials into a cohesive and useful study resource has often times been difficult and inefficient because of the complex and vastly different formats of the material. Further, studies have demonstrated that physical note‐taking and kinesthetic learning (e.g., drawing instead of typing or audio recordings) lead to better educational outcomes for long‐term recall and high‐level understanding. We developed a pilot program to implement the use of an interactive, computer based note‐taking system to efficiently access, create, distribute, and organize study material. Multimedia course content was distributed in a cloud‐based OneNote class notebook, and was utilized by the students and faculty as a collaborative resource. Students were instructed in how to use the platform, including customizing the content library, taking digital longhand notes, generating digital renderings, concept maps, and audio/video recordings, collaborative note‐sharing, and utilizing complex search methods to organize content in a manner best suited to their individual learning styles. After the course was completed, surveys were distributed to the students (n=90) to gauge use and determine their level of acceptance of this technology. Our results demonstrate that though the learning curve was relatively steep and students were initially skeptical of using a university mandated electronic resource as a note‐taking tool, many reported increased efficiency and organization in their studying methods. The majority (97%) reported their intent to create a digital repository of content and plan to continue use of OneNote for the remainder of their medical education (88%). The preliminary findings of this study suggest that further integration of OneNote into anatomy and other areas of our curriculum is warranted. Future studies should evaluate the effect of this software platform on learning outcomes.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by an internal institutional grant from A.T. Still University.