The effect of pre‐body donor quizzes on student performance in a hybrid anatomy course

Learning human anatomy is essential for Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) education. Body donors are traditionally utilized to understand content, but in a hybrid learning environment, students have limited time to use body donors. To improve body donor access and learning, we created online synchronous pre‐body donor activities. The impact of these online strategies on students' subsequent exams and final grade were investigated in a non‐randomized, observational study. These activities were hypothesized to positively influence students' anatomy performance. In a 16‐week semester, DPT students (case [n = 91], control [n = 22]) participated in a hybrid program of asynchronous/synchronous online learning and two in‐person immersions. Measures included student course grades and teaching surveys. Spearman's rho correlations analyzed the relationship between four pre‐body donor quizzes to body donor exams, written exams, and final course grade. Mann–Whitney U tests assessed differences in grades between cohorts. A linear regression model examined the influence of pre‐body donor quizzing on exams/final grades. Correlation tests revealed a strong relationship between the average pre‐body donor quiz score and both the first written exam and final course grade (p = 0.0001). The case group achieved significantly higher scores than the control group on the first in‐person body donor exam (p = 0.011), the second written exam (p = 0.0001), and the final grade (p = 0.004). The pre‐body donor quizzes predicted performance on the subsequent in‐person body donor exams, written exams, and the final grade. Implementation of online pre‐body donor learning activities was associated with increased academic performance among hybrid DPT students and may aid in learning anatomy concepts for clinical practice.