European Journal of Anatomy

Official Journal of The Spanish Society of Anatomy
Cover Volume 11 - Number S1
Eur J Anat, 11 (S1): 45-48 (2007)

Anatomy and e-learning. A virtual experience

Gonzalez-Sequeros O., Bernal-Manas C., Egea J.

Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine and Odontology, University of Murcia, Spain; Area of Applied Information and Communication Technologys, University of Murcia, Spain; Departament of Anatomy, School of Medicine and Odontology, Espinardo 30.071, Murcia, Spain

ABSTRACT The reform of structures and organization within Spanish universities inside the European area of Higher Education is changing the teaching-learning process in health sciences schools and faculties, including Dentistry. In particular, there is emphasis on 1) developing the skills and competencies necessary for responding to the normal range of circumstances in dental general practice, 2) on achieving some competences relating to continuing professional development, 3) on working together with other health care professionals and 4) about using contemporary information technology. We have designed a virtual subject "Applied Odontologic Anatomy" (AOA) in order to develop these general competencies as well as developing specific anatomical objectives. Accordingly, students must be prepared to apply their anatomical knowledge of maxillary and mandibular alveolar apophyses and to relate this with oral diseases and implant restorations. In the virtual campus of Murcia University, students have the contents of the virtual material and students must resolve different tasks following some initial guidance. We present in this paper the results of AOA evaluation using a quantitative 5 point Lickert response questionnaire in order to assess whether students consider they had acquired the competencies mentioned above. Our response rate was 67%. The mean scores for all the competencies were between 3.56 and 4. The results show that students think that they have acquired to a high degree the competencies defined in our e-learning package, although, they also identified some problems, including difficulty in team-working and in obtaining information from the internet. Consequently, we believe that it is important to develop relevant learning resources with appropriate guidelines when using information and communication technologies and for the management of information and documentation.

Keywords: anatomy, automation, competence, conference paper, human, Internet, knowledge, learning, medical education, medical student, virtual reality

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)