Anatomy podcasts for medical education

Abstract

The implementation of podcasts as a complementary educational activity increased over the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Being an alternative channel for transmission of anatomical knowledge, the on-demand audio broadcasts became an intriguing medium for both students and educators. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire study on the evaluation of an audio podcast designed specifically for the first-year medical students as an innovative and optional component of the human anatomy course. The audience expressed their opinions in four categories: engagement in listening to the podcast, content and preferences, technical level and perspectives of using the podcast in further years of medical studies. Despite the non-compulsory nature of the podcast, the listenership reached the level of 45%. In the study, 1608 listeners had access to the survey and the overall response rate was 35.9%. Based on the analysis, the attitude and preferences of the listeners were demonstrated, including the preferred time of listening, length of the episodes, selection of topics, format of the broadcast, or the method of its delivery. Students also commented on the influence of the podcast on passing the final exam in anatomy and a concept of recording broadcasts in a foreign language. The presented data allowed the recognition of the needs of medical students and contributed to the improvement of the ongoing project. The paper presents the technical data and guidelines for educators willing to include this medium in the students' anatomical curriculum.

Keywords: anatomy; education; medical; sound recordings; undergraduate; webcasts as topic.