Use of Anatomy Applications: Prevalence, Student Perception, and Potential Impact on Anatomy Education
Authors: Eladl Mohamed Ahmed , Jarrahi Abbas , Jabbar Hussein , Al Midani Omar 
Published: June 2021

With the recent paradigm shift towards student‐centered learning and the growing availability of technology worldwide, the use of interactive technology in anatomy teaching has led to the development of computer‐assisted learning (CAL) methods. Mobile software applications (apps) have found their way to students' table tops and since the apps are continually developing, the fashion by which they influence students' learning needs to be evaluated.

The study aims to discover the prevalence of anatomy apps usage on tablets, laptops or mobile devices, among first and second‐year medical students. Additionally, it explores the students' perceptions on which of the features of these anatomy apps they find most beneficial in their anatomy learning. And lastly, the study would inspect whether the use of these apps affects the students' examination scores.

A self‐administered questionnaire entailing 47 items was used for gathering data. Grades of the students for the anatomy Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) and written examination were correlated with the use of the anatomy apps.

A total of 160 students voluntarily participated in the study. The prevalence of use of anatomy apps on tablets, laptops or mobile devices was 77.5% among the students. A significant difference was found in the prevalence of use of anatomy apps between first‐year (85.4%) and second‐year (67.6%) medical students with p‐value =0.007. The most commonly used apps were “Netter's Anatomy Atlas”, “Gray's Anatomy Student Edition”, “Anatomy TV”, and “Complete Anatomy 2018 ‐ 3D4Medical”. A Likert scale was employed to rank the features of the anatomy apps that the students found to be most beneficial in their anatomy education.

More than three‐quarters of the students reported that using the apps increased their motivation to learn anatomy. Approximately 90% of the students mentioned that the use of anatomy apps increased their knowledge and understanding. However, the responses were less positive for some aspects such as the level of details involved in the apps, its property of relating the content to clinical aspects and its flexibility to suit various learning styles. The majority of the students agreed that the apps should be used in conjunction with anatomy specimens in labs rather than the apps being a replacement for them.

No statistical difference was observed when the marks of students who used the apps were correlated to those who did not use the apps (p‐values were 0.377 for OSPE and 0.120 for written examination). Also, no significant difference was found among the frequency and duration of use of the apps and the marks of OSPE or written examination.

In conclusion, a high prevalence of use of anatomy apps among first and second‐year medical students was reported with the positive experience they had on its effects on anatomy education. The use of these applications to enhance anatomy education as a complementary learning tool should be considered. A multimodal tactic, which includes various anatomy teaching methods and respects the preference of students, seem to be the supreme approach.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.