Going Virtual to Support Anatomy Education: A STOPGAP in the Midst of the Covid‐19 Pandemic
Darrell J. R. Evans, Boon‐Huat Bay, Timothy D. Wilson, Claire F. Smith, Nirusha Lachman, Wojciech Pawlina
Abstract
“All hands on deck, we need to move everything online as quickly as possible.” This is the message that has been ringing out across universities worldwide over the last couple of months as the Covid-19 pandemic has taken hold. Anatomists have responded to this call enthusiastically and creatively, ensuring that their students have resources available to continue and support their learning as they are forced to study remotely and exercise social distancing and where necessary self-isolation. Despite the seriousness of the health situation, this new drive to move to online learning provides the necessary opportunity to assess our future approach to curriculum design and delivery for the anatomical sciences. This pause to reevaluate is necessary as online learning offers up refreshing and pedagogically innovative approaches to facilitate learning. For many courses and programs however, it is not the long-term silver bullet solution to all learning provision and has consequences that must be considered.