If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a 3D picture worth two thousand words? Assessing educational value of 2D vs 3D figures in embryology education
Authors: Duenas Angelique Nicole , Lee Lisa MJ. 
Published: June 2021

Recent advances in technology have led to a new variety of visual aids for anatomical sciences education, including diagrams or photographs depicting more 3D structural relations. However, although embryology is one of the most visually oriented and foundational anatomical sciences subjects, there are relatively fewer such visual aids available. Most figures in embryology textbooks are 2D illustrations, and only a few others depict some dimensionality of the developing embryo either with 3D illustrations or scanning electron micrographs. Considering the complexity of the embryonic developmental events, instructors and students rely heavily on these limited figures to teach and learn. However, there is currently limited literature on what type of visual resources in textbooks is preferred by students and most conducive to learning embryology. Thus, an IRB‐exempt study was designed to gauge student preferences for the dimensionality of embryology figures accompanying texts; and to assess whether the type of the image affects learning outcome. Two educational handouts on the subject of neurulation were produced with identical text, but the control handout featured 2D illustrations of the process, while the experimental handout featured similar figures but depicted in 3D with scanning electron micrographs and a rendered confocal image. First year students enrolled in anatomical sciences courses in medical and graduate programs were recruited and were randomly assigned to receive either control or experimental handouts. Educational efficacy of the handout was assessed by pre vs. post quiz performance comparison before and after the handout exposure. A survey assessed perceived educational value of the handouts and the figures. A total of 104 (79 medical, 25 graduate) students completed the study. The quantitative analyses of pre vs. post quiz scores revealed a statistically significant post quiz outcome for the experimental group (n=51; p=0.01; 9% average increase) and not a statistically significant outcome for the control group (n=53; p=0.43; 3% average increase). However, analysis of the post quiz increase values between the control vs. experimental groups suggested that there was no significant learning outcomes difference (p=0.85) between the two groups. Survey analytics showed the majority of participants in both control and experimental groups reporting a predominant reliance on text for learning with only occasional use of the figures (86% and 90% respectively). Interestingly, 74% of the control group reported that the 2D figures significantly increased their understanding of the text in handout, while only 60% of the experimental group responded as such for the 3D figures. Thematic analyses of the comments revealed high preference for more detail, bright colors, and labels for control figures, and higher contrast and labels for the experimental figures. This study demonstrates that simple educational handouts have potential to promote learning, however, the impact of the dimensionality of the accompanying figures on learning outcome warrants further study.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.