Draw anatomy - an investigation of the learning method drawing on a tablet to learn gross anatomy

Styn, Amelie (2025): Draw anatomy - an investigation of the learning method drawing on a tablet to learn gross anatomy. Dissertation, LMU München: Medizinische Fakultät

Abstract

Medical students can learn anatomy in many ways. Traditional methods of learning anatomy are increasingly being supplemented by new technology-based methods as mobile devices are used more frequently. Therefore, this thesis aimed to investigate one learning method, namely drawing anatomical content on a tablet. The central questions were whether drawing on a tablet leads to better learning outcome than paper-based methods and whether there is a difference in the sustainability of this learning outcome. Furthermore, it was investigated whether there is a correlation between the quality of strategy implementation and the learning outcome. To answer these questions, a study was conducted with a total of 105 medical students who learned anatomical content using three different learning methods. These three learning methods were drawing on a tablet, drawing on paper, and making summaries on paper. The learning phase consisted of all participants reading the same learning text with the corresponding pictures and making drawings and summaries in sections about the anatomical content of this learning text. The group with the tablet used a drawing app, developed by our workgroup, on the tablet with a digital pen. To measure the learning outcome, an anatomy knowledge test was administered directly after the learning phase and at intervals of 4-6 weeks, and the quality of the drawings and summaries was assessed with a scoring sheet. The results of this study showed that there was no significant difference between the three learning methods in terms of learning outcome and its sustainability. It was also found that there was a positive relationship between the quality of strategy implementation and the learning outcome and that the quality of the drawings and summaries produced moderated the effect of the learning method on the learning outcome. At low quality, writing on paper compared to drawing on paper, as well as drawing on a tablet compared to drawing on paper, led to lower learning outcome. At high quality, writing on paper compared to drawing on paper as well as drawing on the tablet compared to drawing on paper led to higher learning outcome. These results show that drawing on a tablet can be used as an equivalent learning method for learning gross anatomy by medical students and that it is especially beneficial when the quality of the drawings is high. It must be kept in mind that the app we developed is still in its early stages and still has room for improvement. In addition, the students in this study have just had the opportunity to get to know the app and had to get used to the new learning method. Future research could conduct further studies on drawing on the tablet and investigate how learning outcomes change when the tablet and a drawing app are integrated into the gross anatomy course and used regularly by the students. This work contributes insights to this new learning method and thus enables further support of medical students in their learning.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften ; 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Fakultäten: Medizinische Fakultät
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 2. Juli 2025
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Fischer, Martin