Integrating anatomy learning: A comparative study of anatomical digital resource and flipped model with sectra

Innovative modalities have been administered in educating Anatomy to medical undergraduates, specifically Neuroscience because of its clinical significance. For building strong foundation in Anatomy, focus is shifting towards adaptation of digital resources for delivery of content such as three-dimensional (3D) digital resources like 3 D Sectra Visualization Table (SVT). However, lack of dimensional details and relationship of displayed Neuroanatomy images and limited applicability of its digital dissection features necessitate an adjunct teaching strategy to complement the deficiencies in Sectra visualization table. Therefore, to bring about meaningful learning in Neuroanatomy, a model of flipped classroom was designed with existing three-dimensional digital Anatomy resource (3D SVT) and observed the comparison between two approaches on students' academic performance.

The study was designed to accomplish the following two objectives: To compare the effect of flipped classroom teaching strategy combined with a 3 D digital Anatomy resource (SVT) and 3D digital Anatomical resource (SVT) alone on students academic performance in Neuroanatomy through pre and post-test scores To assess medical students' perceptions of the flipped classroom model integrated with digital anatomy resources in the context of learning Neuroanatomy.

A Quasi- experimental study was conducted on two thirty-three medical students. Second year MBBS students were randomly divided into two groups. Group I (Experimental group) was exposed to the flipped classroom with digital anatomical resource while Group II (Control group) was taught through the 3D Sectra session. A pre and the posttest was held before and after each session. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to evaluate students' perception of the flipped classroom integrated model with Sectra (3 D digital resource). In the present study pre and post test scores of students for two groups were reported, within group comparison was made using Wilcoxon sign rank test and between group comparison was done using Mann Whitney U test. Comparison of test scores was also done with respect to gender.

The results of the study revealed that after exposure to flipped classroom with 3D digital resource, a significant increase in the posttest score of interventional Group was observed in comparison to control Group post test score after receiving session with 3D resource alone (p < 0.001). However, with regards to gender, both male and female students give an average similar performance giving no significant difference in their performance. The reliability coefficient for perceptions of experimental group students after exposure to flipped model showed the overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.94.

The study showed the flipped classroom with 3D digital resource approach significantly improved students' test scores compared to the sessions with 3D resource alone. Moreover, a general positive perception of the new teaching approach was reported by students of flipped classroom.