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Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching and Learning 2021
It is well known that VR
in anatomy teaching and learning promotes 21st- century competencies, viz. critical thinking, decision- making, problem-solving communication and collaboration.
When the lead author of this article was taught Human Anatomy, the traditional teaching modalities of cadaveric dissection, prosected specimens viewing and plastic model handling were used. There is no doubt that dissection presents an invaluable learning opportunity that affords students to learn more than the anatomy of the human body and clinical dissection skills, but also social skills from peer interaction, teamwork, decision-making abilities, respect and confidentiality. Over the last few years, South Africa has been facing
a significant cadaver shortage for medical education and research (Lazarus et al. 2019). A news24 article emanating from the University of KwaZulu-Natal elaborated that the current Covid-19 pandemic has further impacted body donor programmes, ‘For Covid-19, which
[are] bodies we don’t accept, for all the bodies we accept they have to be tested for Covid-19, and if the results come back and they are positive, we immediately contact the family
and inform them so that they can make funeral arrangements, said Mbokazi’ (Bhengu 2021). The Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology (HAP) at University of Johannesburg (UJ) has also experienced a significant decline in the number of cadavers obtained for dissection over the last few years, which substantially impacts teaching, learning and research.
Furthermore, human anatomy is a visual science that builds the foundation for medical teaching and learning (McLachlan & Patten 2006; Zhao et al. 2020). In anatomy, students learn how to identify anatomical structures and their spatial relationships. However, students often experience challenges understanding three dimensional (3D) anatomy from graphic images in textbooks and lecture content (Zhao et al. 2020). Hence, it is imperative to create modern approaches focused on efficient and