A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Medicine and dentistry
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We have not generally provided references to materials in this chapter, as they rapidly
go out of date. In the UK the 01 (Medical, Dental and Veterinary) Subject Centre has
much up-to-date information on its website covering new developments, open access
repositories and so on (see HEA Subject Centre under Further reading). It has also
been among the funders of small-scale research to investigate the efficacy and drawback
of various technology-based approaches. (It is also useful for many other aspects of
medical and dental education.)
Some caveats about the use of technology are appropriate. Using technology:
• can involve a high up-front cost, but can yield a good pay-off if used selectively and
appropriately;
• does not (necessarily) remove the desirability/need for real-life practice;
• is expensive;
• should include promotion of thinking, learning and giving feedback, rather than just
providing information.
Few university teachers are highly adept in using technology effectively; specialised
training may help. Evidence for the impact and efficacy of technology is still in the
early days. Technology often needs to be blended with other methods and appropriate
use sought according to the topic under study. All of that said, our own experience is
that students expect to use technology, take to it readily and urge on imaginative
developments.
Case study 2 demonstrates how a variety of methods can be brought together to present
a complete learning environment, including the incorporation of technology. This
example is about anatomy teaching, but there are many other curriculum areas where
technology can be used effectively and imaginatively as part of the diet of teaching and
learning.
Case study 2: Anatomy teaching and learning at
Peninsula Medical School
What do we do?
The Peninsula Medical School is pioneering an integrated, comprehensive and
‘humanistic’ approach to the teaching and learning of anatomy across all five
years of our course. There is no dissection or prosection of cadavers within the
programme.
Learning is triggered through exposure to common or important clinical
scenarios, which may be paper-based, using simulated patients, or through
real encounters in the clinical environment. Learning is intensively supported
through Life Science Resource Centres in each locality. In the first two years, this