Comparative Effectiveness of Traditional Lecture, Flipped Classroom, 3D Visualisation, and Case-Based Learning in Undergraduate Anatomy Education

Background: Knowledge of anatomy is essential in medical education but conventional teaching approaches do not effectively promote spatial perception or clinical thinking. This has resulted in the combination of active learning and technology-enhancement learning approaches. This study is designed to assess the effectiveness of the traditional lecture, flipping the classroom, 3D visualization and clinical case-based learning in improving the anatomical knowledge, spatial understanding, clinical reasoning and interest of the students. Material and Methods: An educational study performed by taking 100 first year MBBS students and randomly categorized into four groups of 25 students each for teaching purpose. Before and after anatomical knowledge, spatial comprehension and clinical reasoning was assessed using structured tests. A valid Likert scale questionnaire was used to assess student engagement. ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests were used to analyse data. Results: All teaching method increased the post-test scores significantly compared to initial evaluation. The use of 3D visualization led to the highest levels of knowledge and spatial understanding. The highest marks in clinical reasoning and engagement levels were earned by the clinical case based learning group, in contrast. Besides this, the group that used the flipped classroom showed significant improvement in comparison with the traditional lecture group. Conclusion: The use of active and technology-based teaching methods is able to improve the learning outcomes of anatomy more than conventional lectures. The addition of various 3D visualizations, case-based learning and flipped classroom techniques to the anatomy curriculum can lead to enhanced knowledge retention, spatial perception and clinical application of the concepts.

Keywords: Flipped classroom, 3D visualization, Case-based learning, Active learning, Anatomy education, Medical students.