143 - Utility of Affordable In-house Dissection Videos to Improve Student Skills and Experience

Poster Board Number: 143
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Abstract Body : Introduction & Objective: Cadaveric dissection is an integral part of most graduate health science curricula. Student dissections are largely self-guided using standard manuals written by textbook authors or modified manuals written by faculty. This self-guided nature of learning often creates anxiety and yields heavy reliance on faculty instruction during small-group dissection sessions. Anatomy faculty are of limited proportion and student-teacher ratios do not allow for all students to receive tailored instruction. Two solutions discussed in published literature include near-peer teaching and the utilization of dissection videos. Available dissection videos come from a variety of vetted (e.g. AclandAnatomy.com and Grant’s Anatomy Lab) and non-vetted (e.g., YouTube) sources. Although these tools are helpful, outside resources do not always match the locally preferred instructions for each dissection. The goal of this research is to understand if the economical creation of dissection videos recorded by teaching faculty tailored to course content will be beneficial to health science students' dissection experience.

Materials and Methods: In this feasibility study, dissection videos were filmed using a budget-friendly, head-mounted GoPro video camera by an anatomy instructor preparing prosections as described in a faculty-written dissection manual. The films were edited using Apple’s iMovie and Adobe Premiere Pro. Editing involved highlighting important structures, speeding up and slowing down the film during longer bouts of dissection, and condensing each film to be under 10 minutes in length. Some of all or parts of created films were shown to students in a first-year dental anatomy course as a method of gauging their reception and utility. A short, seven-question survey was created to better understand the efficacy of the videos as well as expose areas for improvement.

Results: The survey will first gauge student use of and sources for dissection videos. Secondly, this research seeks to understand whether there will be any student-perceived benefits of having faculty-guided dissection videos tailored to course content. The survey also aims to discern specific aspects – time, access, presentation – that are of more or less concern to the students in hopes to make the videos most effective.

Conclusion: There is evidence that offering in-house dissection videos helps students feel more comfortable performing cadaveric dissections. Previous research in this arena describes mixed results focused on single regions of anatomy using cost- and time-prohibitive production methods. This study presents a novel method to overcome those obstacles. This research is limited for it can only be retrospective; therefore, the researchers plan to continue receiving feedback annually so that the videos can be improved upon each year.

Significant/Implication: The utility of in-house dissection videos is not well understood. Published research focuses on cost-prohibitive methods to create videos laser-focused on a single region. Outcomes from this research are mixed at best and negatively portrayed. This research provides an affordable method for anatomy educators to easily create and assess the use of their own videos for students.