Undergraduate introductory human anatomy and human physiology courses are either taught as discipline-specific or integrated anatomy and physiology (A&P) sequences. An institution underwent a curricular revision to change the course approach from discipline-specific Human Anatomy and Human Physiology to an integrated A&P I and II sequence,…

The reconstruction of two-dimensional (2D) slices to three-dimensional (3D) digital anatomical models requires technical skills and software that are becoming increasingly important to the modern anatomist, but these skills are rarely taught in undergraduate science classrooms. Furthermore, learning opportunities that allow students to…

Developments in biology and genetics in recent decades have caused significant shifts in the understanding and conceptualization of human biological variation. Humans vary biologically in different ways, including individually, due to age, ancestry, and sex. An understanding of the complexities of all levels of biological variation is necessary…

Graduate anatomy courses should be designed based on several needs. These include preparation for how to study in medical school and other healthcare programs, integrating multiple ways of engaging with the material, including repetition for long-term retention, and training of anatomy educators. Our graduate anatomy course presents an example of…

The correlation of anatomy with pathophysiology is not intuitive for many medical students. Despite detailed cadaver dissections and three-dimensional models, board-style clinical correlation questions can still be challenging for first-year students. To facilitate understanding in this regard, prosections were developed to illustrate the clinical…

Near-peer teaching has been widely implemented in medical schools and the benefits for the near-peer teachers (NPTs), the students, and the institution have been well documented. However, NPT training methods and perceptions of such have been limited. A four-year clinical anatomy and surgical training program was established (est. 2019) as part of…

At the University of Bristol, we established a novel dissection course to complement our anatomy degree. Students enrolled in this undergraduate course are trained as comparative anatomists, with equal time given to both human and veterinary anatomy. Historically, students opted to dissect either human or veterinary donors as part of the course.…

Concerns have recently been expressed about the continuing availability of human bones from India, obtained originally for educational purposes but lacking the requisite informed consent that would be expected today. More generally, a broader claim is being made, namely, that the practice of using any unconsented bones in educational settings is…

Anatomy education is essential for developing healthcare professionals, and discussion continues about factors that impact and improve the anatomy learning environment. Neglected in this discussion is a consideration of the diverse religious assumptions and beliefs that college students bring to anatomy learning. Surveys of religion among United…

The purpose of this descriptive article was to illustrate the process of using constructive alignment in redesigning an introductory gross anatomy unit that is taught specifically to sports science and physical education students at Victoria University. The unit was redesigned as an intensive learning unit in 2017 as part of a broader…

Activity theory is a relatively young methodology for researching higher education teaching practices. Beyond systemic analyse of workplace activities and their development, activity theory used in its full interventionist capacity can foster practitioners' transformative agency to initiate practice change. Nevertheless, this is not an easy…

The term "histology" was coined a little over 200 years ago and the subject has always relied on microscopy as its defining technology. Microscopy was and still is an essential approach for the description of cellular components and their arrangements in living organisms. For more than a century and a half, histology or microanatomy has…

Digital anatomy programs such as the Primal Program™, BodyViz™, Complete Anatomy™, or Cengage™, provide rich learning opportunities with the ability to remove anatomical layers, highlight specific structures, and rotate images. However, supporting the diverse learning styles of today's anatomy students requires more than access to digital learning…

Community outreach and service-learning are common components of medical and health profession programs. Outreach programs can provide diverse service-learning opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their communities. Many educational accrediting bodies require service-learning activities for students. The discipline of anatomy is…

In this article, we introduce a new virtual application that offers an interactive model of the brain for neuroanatomy education. Through a dual-platform architecture, the application can be downloaded on both desktop and mobile devices, with the mobile app leveraging unique capacities of modern handheld systems to deploy the brain model in…