How Interactive Anatomy Content Helps Student Engagement

One quarter of first and second year medical students skip most of their classes. Instead of sitting through lectures, they stitch together a variety of digital learning tools that they feel better prepare them for their licensing exams.

 

To adapt to changing student learning styles and needs, medical content creators need to incorporate content into their course materials that not only keep students interested but that help them achieve solid learning outcomes and more importantly, prepare them for practicing medicine in real life.

 

Here’s how an interactive virtual anatomy platform can help:

 

1. Students consider a virtual anatomy experience a more effective learning tool

 

Because of the nature of interactive content, learners are naturally drawn to learning experiences that allow them to discover on their own.

 

For instance, in a study where one group of students learned how to perform an operation through a textbook and the other learned with the help of a virtual anatomy simulator, the virtual anatomy group outperformed the textbook group. Not only were outcomes better, but students perceived the virtual experience as a more effective learning tool.

 

2. Virtual anatomy experiences give students agency and control.

 

The digital era has introduced interactive content where instead of playing the role of consumers, today’s learners are accustomed to playing the role of contributor and creator. Students in the past were content to listen and read. Today’s students expect to create their own learning pathways.

 

Virtual anatomy models empower them to chart their own learning course. Not only can medical content creators author custom content, but so can students. Being able to control how they learn helps them participate in meaningful learning to create multiple pathways for their brain to access the information they’ve just learned.

 

3. Interactive anatomy content imitates real life.

Pilots have trained with flight simulators for decades. It only makes sense then, that medical students should be able to train with simulators as well.

 

Virtual anatomy content enables them to do just that. In fact, when they use a digital 3D anatomy experience, they outperform counterparts using a human cadaver.

 

4. Content creators can tailor visuals to specific learning objectives.

In the past, educational content creators struggled to find 2D images in anatomy atlases that fit the anatomical structure they were trying to teach. The result was that graphics and diagrams didn’t always fit what the learner needed to see.

 

A virtual anatomy model, however, can be customized with paint to highlight key features, labels to describe what the learner is seeing, and tailored camera angles and views that help learners understand spatial relationships.

 

5. Content creators can develop virtual tours of the anatomy.

To help learners understand the body’s systems and structures, content creators can create narratives that walk the user through the anatomy model. They can also develop virtual tours of disease progression or the effects of treatment. Instead of reading how a drug treats migraines, for instance, students can watch it happen.

 

Engage your learners.

Create engaging learning experiences that students won’t want to skip out on.

 

Book a demo with a representative today.