Faculty Perception of Student Engagement in Online Anatomy Laboratory Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Richards, Sherese
Abstract	When the social distancing guidelines, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused universities to close campuses, there was a rapid shift in the course delivery methods of human gross anatomy laboratory sessions. Courses were delivered online, and this change created new challenges for anatomy faculty to engage students effectively. This profoundly impacted student-instructor interactions, the quality of the learning environment, and successful student outcomes. Because of the importance of student interaction and engagement for hands-on laboratory courses like anatomy, which rely on cadaver dissections and in-person learning communities, as well as the novel opportunity, this qualitative study sought to explore the faculty perspectives of transitioning their in-person laboratory sessions online and unearth their experience with student engagement in this new teaching format. The Delphi technique was used to explore this experience in two rounds of qualitative inquiry using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, identifying codes and building themes. The study utilized indicators of student engagement in online courses to formulate four themes: instructor presence, social presence, cognitive presence, and reliable technology design and access. These were constructed based on the factors faculty used to maintain engagement, new challenges they faced, and strategies deployed to overcome these challenges and engage students in the new learning format. These are supported by strategies such as using video and multimedia, ice-breaker activities, chat and discussion features, immediate and personalized feedback, and virtual meeting via synchronous sessions. These themes highlight important lessons that faculty designing online anatomy laboratory courses can use to guide their course design, and institutions and instructional design faculty can use to inform best practices and faculty development efforts. Additionally, the study calls for further research to design a standardized and global assessment tool that measures student engagement in the online learning environment.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9990041&blobtype=pdf
Journal	Medical Science Educator [Med Sci Educ]
Volume Number	33
DOI	10.1007/s40670-023-01762-7
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9990041
Issue Number	2
PubMed reference number	37251200
e-ISSN	21568650
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2023-03-07
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	© The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Association of Medical Science Educators 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
Subject Keyword	Student engagement Remote anatomy laboratory Anatomy Online learning
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Education Medicine