Impact of modified teaching strategies used in a gross anatomy course on the academic performance of dental students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Modified teaching strategies (MTS), asynchronous online teaching and smaller dissection groups, were applied to a gross anatomy course for dental students in the National Taiwan University in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the effects and perceptions of MTS on dental students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Scores for anatomy examinations for 2018-2019 (without MTS) and 2019-2020 (with MTS) cohorts were compared to explore the effect on academic performance. Moreover, questionnaire from the 2019-2020 cohort was analysed to determine dental students' perceptions about MTS. RESULTS: The lecture performance in the final examination of the second semester for the 2019-2020 cohort was significantly higher than that of the first semester (pre-COVID-19) and that for the 2018-2019 cohort. However, the laboratory performance in the midterm examination of the second semester for the 2019-2020 cohort was significantly lower than that for the 2018-2019 cohort and showed no difference in the final examination of the first semester. The questionnaires revealed that the majority of students displayed positive attitudes towards MTS and agreed with the importance of peer discussion during laboratory dissection. CONCLUSIONS: Asynchronous online learning for anatomy lecture may be beneficial for dental students; however, a smaller dissection group accompanied by reduced peer discussion may temporarily exert negative effects on their laboratory performance at the beginning of the application. Furthermore, more dental students exhibited positive perceptions towards smaller dissection groups. These findings could illuminate the learning condition of dental students in anatomy education.

The impact of asynchronous online anatomy teaching and smaller learning groups in the anatomy laboratory on medical students' performance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, National Taiwan University anatomy teachers adopted asynchronous online video teaching and reduced the size of anatomy laboratory groups in April 2020. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of these changes on medical students' learning. Before Covid-19, the performance of the 2019-2020 cohort was significantly better than that of the 2018-2019 cohort. However, the implementation of modified teaching strategies significantly lowered the laboratory midterm score of the 2019-2020 cohort in the second semester. Conversely, the final laboratory examination score of the 2019-2020 cohort was significantly higher than that of the 2018-2019 cohort. Through correlation analysis, lecture and laboratory examination scores were highly correlated. Additionally, the difference in lecture and laboratory z-scores between two cohorts, the Likert scale survey and free-text feedback of the 2019-2020 cohort, were conducted to show the impact of modified teaching strategies. There were several important findings in this study. First, the change in teaching strategies may temporarily negatively influence medical students to learn anatomy. Besides, analyzing the performance of laboratory assessments could be a complementary strategy to evaluate online assessments. Applying lecture examination scores to predict laboratory performance was a feasible way to identify students who may have difficulty in learning practical dissection. Finally, reducing group size together with reduced peer discussion may have a negative effect on learning cadaver dissection for students with low academic performance. These findings should be taken into consideration when anatomy teachers apply new teaching strategies in anatomy courses.