Bob Tallitsch serves as Principal Investigator for NSF grant to explore computer assisted instruction

Bob Tallitsch serves as the Principal Investigator on a $150,000 grant awarded through the National Science Foundation. This Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant. funded a project entitled “The effects of computer-assisted instruction in teaching human anatomy: An experimental study.” NSF typically funds less than 20% of the approximately 100 CCLI grant applications that are submitted each year.

Co-investigators on this grant are Dr. Allison Beck, also in the Biology Department at Augustana College, and Drs. Kirk Kelley and Brenda Peters at St. Ambrose University.

Learning the required information in a college-level human anatomy or a combined anatomy and physiology (A & P) course requires students to utilize at least two different learning techniques:

• The acquisition of a large and complex technical vocabulary, and
  
• The development of an ability to interpret and understand three-dimensional (3D) structural relationships within the human body.

This is typically accomplished using available textbooks with well-defined atlases and cadaver dissection experiences. This grant proposes the comparison and evaluation of this typical teaching pedagogical method against learning and retention through computer-assisted (CAI) instruction.

We aim to accomplish this by following these specific objectives:

Objective 1: Develop laboratory modules, utilizing the Cyber-Anatomy™ program, which will be utilized in college-level anatomy and A & P courses to enhance and augment “typical” human anatomy laboratory exercises.

Objective 2: Test students’ ability to understand and interpret 3D structural relationships upon entering a college-level human anatomy or A & P course.

Objective 3: Determine the improvement, if any, in the students’ understanding and interpretation of 3D structural relationships following the completion of a standard college-level anatomy or A & P course with or without CAI.

Objective 4: Determine how much, if at all, the utilization of laboratory modules involving Cyber-Anatomy™ enhances the students’ interest in the course overall.

Objective 5: Determine how much, if at all, the utilization of laboratory modules involving Cyber-Anatomy™ enhances the students’ ability to retain anatomical information.

Anatomy and A&P students, regardless of level, must learn how to mentally translate two-dimensional (2D) anatomical illustrations into 3D structures and structural relationships. The inclusion of more MRI, CT and other cross-sectional imaging techniques in undergraduate anatomy and A & P texts is increasing the need for students to be able to make this 2D to 3D translation.

If the utilization of Cyber-Anatomy™, and its associated laboratory modules, is demonstrated to have a positive impact upon a student’s ability to interpret 3D structural relationships, retain essential anatomical information, and increase interest student interest in the course, additional work will be undertaken to further develop Cyber-Anatomy™. This computer program could then provide an excellent tool for computer-assisted instruction that could result in a significant enhancement of student learning in human anatomy courses and combined anatomy and physiology courses at community colleges and four-year undergraduate institutions nation wide.