WebAnatomy Helps Students Puzzle Out Parts and Systems of the Human Body
By Lauren Marsh
Anatomy students faces a significant challenge: to learn by heart the names of over 600 muscles and over 300 bones of the human body. For these students, their recall will aid them in problem-solving in a medical or therapeutic context. Therefore, committing information to memory is inherently forward-thinking. Murray Jensen, an associate professor in the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, created the WebAnatomy site to help his freshman anatomy students learn and practice this foundational knowledge because, as he says, "you have to know the parts prior to learning how they all work together."
Jensen was inspired to create his WebAnatomy site twelve years ago when he saw a colleague's online math quizzes. He was struck by the potential of the relatively new medium, then largely given to delivering static Web pages and still new enough that only half his students had Web access from their homes. He borrowed the program from his colleague and created his own anatomy information—simple self-tests that are still the most visited pages on the site. Students choose a category—for instance, Skulls and Skeletons or the Nervous System—then select a short, medium, or long self test. Presented with a numbered diagram, they name parts of the system by selecting the correct answers from drop-down menus. The site provides instant feedback by showing students' scores and providing them an opportunity to review the correct answers. When students are ready to up the ante, they can move on to timed quizzes in which they play against the clock by clicking and dragging correct terminology into place on an unlabelled diagram. Over the years the site has grown, and last year it got over 1.5 million hits.
Images on the site are clean, bright, and informative. As Jensen explains, because information on the Web is visual and static, it is an ideal environment for learning anatomy. In contrast, physiology isn't easily communicated through Web pages because students must view the body and its systems in motion. The key for instructors, says Jensen, is to figure out what piece of the puzzle you can solve with the Web and what piece you can't. "The anatomy component of my course fits perfectly with the Internet. Physiology not so much—I have to do that in the lab or in the lecture. Moving the anatomy component to the Web frees up time in the lab to do physiology."
The site's newest feature is a multiplayer anatomy game that allows groups of players to compete against one another and engage in some fun and friendly competition. Visitors to the site from around the world have played this game. Jensen uses the game in the structured environment of the classroom where he has teams of students gather around computers and compete with one another. Other instructors might dream about his students' enthusiastic response as they pump their fists in the air and shout out, "Cool!" and "Yes!" Jensen knows he can't compete with Xbox or PlayStation, but he hopes participants "get a little bit of the endorphin rush" that people feel when they're immersed in video games. He hopes these games and the element of competition they bring to the class will be the "hook that will save a couple of kids who wouldn't otherwise pass."
Jensen is careful to emphasize that the WebAnatomy site is one component in a diverse learning experience. "Some people have endorphins raging though their brains when they use a computer. Other people have fear when they're at a computer. I try to teach everybody." The WebAnatomy site is one piece of the puzzle.
Related Resources
- See the WebAnatomy site.
- Jensen was a DMC faculty fellow in 2000–01. See a description of his fellowship project and learn more about the DMC Faculty Fellowship Program.
- Jensen has received several TEL grants: in 2006 with Gerald Shannon and Jill Trites for In Your Ear, On the Air, For Your Eye: Podcasting and Wikis as Tools of Universal Instructional Design; in 2001–02 for Implementing and Evaluating the Use of Computer Peripheral Equipment in the Entry Level Human Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Site, and with Terry Collins in 1999–00 for Evaluating the Effectiveness of TEL (PDF).
- Jensen and Jennifer Connor are working with other instructors and staff members from the Center for Teaching and Learning and the DMC to improve student learning in large classes as part of the Bush Foundation Innovative Teaching and Technology Strategies initiative. See his PowerPoint presentation about strategies used in the GC 1135: Anatomy and Physiology course.
