Students as partners: A novel approach to developing a gamified anatomical learning toolkit using design thinking...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Human Anatomy

Background:

• Student involvement in educational resource design is often limited to testing.
• Traditional methods restrict students' influence on the learning experience.
• A Students as Partners (SAP) approach enables earlier and continuous student collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the application of design thinking and SAP in developing gamified learning tools.
• To create a learner-centered gamified toolkit for enhancing 3D spatial reasoning in anatomy.
• To involve students as partners throughout the design and development process.

Main Methods:

• Utilized design thinking methodology for a structured, learner-centered approach.
• Implemented a Students as Partners (SAP) model for collaborative design.
• Developed the Anat-O-MEE gamified learning toolkit with scaffolded levels (Map, Explore, Extrapolate).

Main Results:

• Successfully developed the Anat-O-MEE toolkit to improve 3D spatial reasoning in anatomy.
• Student partners actively participated in user-interface testing, functionality assessments, and alpha testing.
• Iterative refinements were made to the toolkit's design and content based on student feedback.

Conclusions:

• The collaborative design process, integrating design thinking and SAP, effectively produced a novel gamified learning tool.
• Student partnership is crucial for creating effective and relevant pedagogical resources.
• The Anat-O-MEE toolkit offers a promising approach to enhancing anatomical spatial understanding.