Imagineering Anatomy Assessment Amidst COVID-19: Turning Obstacles into Achievements

A well-designed assessment has beneficial impacts on students' learning and competency attainment. Failure in obtaining psychomotor learning competency, lack of understanding of assessment principles among instructors, unoptimized information and technology facilities, and difficulties in ensuring the integrity of online examination are among the threats to validity of online anatomy assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the validity of anatomy assessment during the pandemic, it is important to adopt several educational principles into the assessment design. We solidify the input discussed in the Malaysian Anatomical Association webinar 2021, on the challenges of anatomy online assessment and proposed six solutions to the challenges, namely adopting the programmatic assessment design, conducting small group in-person high stake examination, modifying assessment policy, utilizing question bank software, upgrading ICT facilities, and offering the ICT training to the students and instructors. It is envisioned that anatomy assessment are future ready are adaptive to change. © 2022 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

The Major Challenges Faced by Medical Lecturers in Teaching, Learning and Assessment during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Study

Introduction: Online teaching, learning, and evaluation are inevitable to ensure the continuity of medical education delivery throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. Based on medical lecturers' experiences during the COVID-19 movement control order (MCO), this study looked into the problems of implementing online teaching, learning, and assessment. Methods: During the COVID-19 MCO, a hermeneutic phenomenology study was conducted using reflective written exercises to explore the challenges faced by medical lecturers. The medical lecturers were given online open-ended questions via a Google form to help them reflect on their previous experiences. The reflective written comments were analysed by ATLAS.ti. Thematic analysis was performed for coding and categorizing the reflective comments into meaningful codes, categories, and themes. Results: A total of 29 medical lecturers responded to the open-ended reflective questions. They were 16 females, and 13 males representing four main medical specialties: basic science (n=10), medical-based (n=9), surgical-based (n=5), and laboratory-based (n=5). The thematic analysis identified five themes of challenges faced by medical lecturers during the pandemic that include ICT facility and support, lecturers' receptivity, online students' engagement, online assessment, and online teaching. Conclusion: This study emphasised the common obstacles faced by medical lecturers during the COVID-19 MCO in order to maintain the continuity of medical education delivery. Students, lecturers, curriculum, ICT facility, and technical assistance were all part of the issues. Several proposals for charting ways to improve medical education delivery during the epidemic were explored. © 2022 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Systematic Approach of Using Body Painting Method for Anatomy Teaching and Practical via Online Platform

In the context of medical education, body painting refers to the schematic portrayal of internal organs on the body's surface. Body painting session has been reported to be fun and engaging, and it encourages learning through easy visualisation of underlying anatomical structures. Besides improving anatomical knowledge retention, body painting is particularly effective for learning surface anatomy and complementing the teaching of clinical skills and peer assessment procedures such as palpation. Indeed, the clinical relevance of the gross anatomy can be conveyed to students by bringing cadaveric anatomy to life body painting. In educational perspective, the delivery of body painting method is in line with the active learning approach and collaborative learning principle;and its instructional design follows the principles of the cognitive load theory. In this article, we provide a systematic approach for a successful body painting session for anatomy teaching via online platform, which cater for remote learning needs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. © Malaysian Association of Education in Medicine and Health Sciences and Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia. 2022

Anatomy teaching and learning in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic

The abrupt transition from face-to-face to online anatomy teaching amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges to anatomy lecturers in Malaysia, as they have had to adapt to new skills to prepare and deliver online classes. These online classes were delivered either synchronously via a web teleconferencing application or asynchronously through pre-recorded videos that were uploaded to the learning management system (LMS). The online delivery of anatomy practical classes has become a major concern among anatomy lecturers and students, especially in public institutions, as there is a lack of hands-on experience and social interaction. Nevertheless, some private medical schools have adapted well to both online lectures and practical classes, as they had been venturing towards online learning and virtual reality tools even before the pandemic commenced. The Malaysian Anatomical Association (MAA) webinar, "Transformation of Anatomy Education in Malaysia during COVID-19 Pandemic", discussed the issues related to lecturers' and students' receptivity to online anatomy classes. This study discusses the issues related to online anatomy teaching and learning (T&L) and the actions taken by the university's governance and anatomy faculty members to resolve the issues discussed in the academic discourse. © 2021 Malaysian Association of Education in Medicine and Health Sciences and Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia.