Leveraging Technology to Enhance Engagement in Anatomy Labs

To enhance engagement in postsecondary education, I created the TRUBOX Digital Anatomy site in WordPress. Previously, students used text descriptions of muscles to label associated diagrams or tables in the lab manual prior to lab. However, this approach lacked context on muscle origin and insertion sites, which themselves provide clues to the function of each muscle. Students are left memorizing names and relative muscle positions on 2D images. In accordance with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and TRU’s Mission and Values on Diversity and Inclusion, Digital Anatomy allows students to explore bones and muscles in 3D, check their understanding with dropdown self-checks throughout each subsection, complete a variety of interactive quizzes using HTML5 Package (H5P) tools, and access instructional videos. A student feedback survey in Moodle assessed learning perceptions after using the Digital Anatomy site in conjunction with the lab manual. Results showed that 83.3% of students found the dropdown self-checks in each WordPress subsection to be ‘helpful’ and ‘extremely helpful’ for learning muscle locations prior to the summative H5P quiz questions. 80% of students felt it was ‘definitely helpful’ to have a variety of Test Your Knowledge H5P quiz questions (hot spot, drag and drop, fill-in-the-blank). In summary, Digital Anatomy, accessible on any device, supports diverse learning styles, enhances engagement and promotes digital literacy.