Student engagement with online gross anatomy and histology resources

Abstract

Online learning resources offer students an ubiquityof earning opportunities, whilealsocateringto varying student learning styles and needs. This presentation collatesseveralyears of analyticsof the engagement of MBBS students atthe University of Tasmania within-houseproduced online histology and gross anatomy resources. Medical studentsweresurveyed about their mobile deviceusage. Usageof online histology resources for year 1,andgross anatomy resources for years1-3,MBBS students was collected from the learningmanagement system and analysedfor correlation between engagement and student performance. Student were also surveyed on their satisfactionwith these resources. Mobiledevices are ubiquitous with 100% of students owningat least one device. Fewerthan halfof the students accessed online resources prior to, orshortly after, the corresponding labsession.Thenumbers of students accessing online quizzes peaked just prior tomajorassessment tasks, while about20%of students neveraccessed a particular resource. Weakpositivecorrelations were found between the number ofdissection resources viewedandscores on cadaver exam questions(r=0.155andr=0.226in years2 and 3, respectively) and with histology resultsandaccess to virtual microscopy resources (r=0.183 in year 1). Thevastmajorityof students replying to surveysrated the in-house online resources highly. Thereis awide range of usage of online resources, and many students may not bemeaningfullyengaging with thecontent.Factors relating to student engagementwithonlineresources will be discussed.