Virginia Research Day 2025

Medical Student Research Education and Simulation

09 Integrating Virtual Human Dissector into a Digital Escape Room Experience: An Online Anatomy Education Study

Riya Patel; Aaron Beger Corresponding author: rpatel12@vt.vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus

Educators have recently used “escape room” formats in the learning environment, in which a team of learners work together to solve puzzles and answer riddles while trying to “escape” a room. Paralleling this trend is a growth in online education following COVID-19, which forced instructors to incorporate new tools that are capable of promoting learning remotely. A natural marriage between these concepts has led to the development of digital escape rooms. How-to guides on the development of such resources are lacking in the literature, as well as student perceptions on how, if, and where they should be integrated into medical curriculum. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe the construction of a digital escape room experience using Virtual Human Dissector (VHD) software and free Google applications, and then evaluate its potential as an anatomy education resource by soliciting feedback via a survey. Of the 27 anatomy tutors and anatomy

interns invited, 8 agreed to participate (30%; 4 OMS-I, 4 OMS-II). All research activities took place via Zoom. Participants worked individually and had 55 minutes to complete the activity. Immediately following the activity, subjects provided feedback via an online questionnaire consisting of 14 five-point Likert-scale questions and two open-ended questions. One participant (12.5%) successfully completed the activity. All 8 subjects agreed or strongly agreed that the activity encouraged them to think about material in a new way, while 5 (62.5%) agreed or strongly agreed that the activity was an effective way to review upper limb anatomy. 5 (62.5%) subjects either agreed or strongly agreed that they’d prefer to do future escape rooms as part of a team and in a physical setting, rather than digitally. A general desire to retain didactic learning was indicated, as 5 (62.5%) subjects either disagreed or strongly disagreed that escape room activities should replace didactic learning.

When asked what they liked most, all 8 respondents addressed some component of the creative nature of the puzzles and riddles that required them to think about the material in a new, engaging way. Responses to “What did you like least about the activity?” included lack of instructions up front, preference for being on a team, and difficulty locating clues. Lessons learned included the importance of providing explicit instructions on how VHD will be utilized and context for what the user can expect during the experience. Future iterations should look to incorporate this feedback, increase the sample size, and investigate student perceptions on how the experience changes when completing individually versus on a team, and online versus in a physical setting.

Approved by VCOM IRB, protocol #2024-192.

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