A Large-Scale Feasibility Study of Screen-based 3D Visualization and Augmented Reality Tools for Human Anatomy Education: Exploring Gender Perspectives in Learning Experience

While anatomy learning is an essential part of medical education, there remain significant challenges in traditional learning methods, In this paper, we introduce two in-house anatomy training solutions that can visualize and superimpose 3D virtual anatomy models with informative labels using a hand-held tablet or a wide-screen AR. To investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed tablet-based 3D visualization and AR tools, we conducted a large-scale study with 236 students enrolled in undergraduate premedical programs (95 M, 141F in 118 dyadic teams). In this study, participant students were split into three groups to use one of the following learning tools in a team-based anatomy painting activity: (1) conventional textbook, (2) hand-held tablet-based 3D visualization, and (3) screen-based AR. The results showed that students who used the tablet-based visualization tool or the AR learning tool reported significantly higher (more positive) learning experience scores than those who used a textbook. Though we did not observe a significant difference in knowledge retention among the three learning tools, our further analysis of gender effects revealed that male participants generally reported more positive learning experience scores than female participants. Also, the overall experience of mixed-gender dyads was reported to be significantly lower than others in most of the learning experience and performance measures. While discussing the implications of our results in the context of anatomy and medical education, we highlight the potential of our learning tools with additional considerations related to gender and team dynamics in body painting anatomy learning interventions.