Traditional teaching supported by computer-assisted learning for macroscopic anatomy.

Over the years we have observed that there is a very low passing rate for the Anatomy and Neuroanatomy courses in our department, and for that reason we decided to implement the use of student-learning resources. The objective of this study was to compare the results of traditional methodology with those obtained with the support of computer-assisted learning (CAL). We performed a retrospective and joint study for Anatomy and Neuroanatomy groups during the period of September 2001 to February 2003, to establish a comparison between traditional learning and traditional learning supported by CAL. In the Anatomy group, students who used the traditional method (n1 = 365) received an average final grade of 58 (SD = 14.94), while the average final grade for students who used the traditional method supported by CAL (n2 = 283) was 68 (SD = 14.56). In the Neuroanatomy group, the students who used the traditional method (n3 = 217) had an average final grade of 61 (SD = 14.51), while the students who used the traditional method supported by CAL (n4 = 134) received an average final grade of 68 (SD = 13.52). A z-test was conducted to determine the difference in averages between the two groups (alpha = 0.05), and the results showed that the averages were significantly different (P <.001). The modified traditional method with CAL support was shown to be the best option in comparison with the traditional method. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.