The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Improves Student Exam Scores with Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. and IOWA CITY, Iowa, April 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine has seen improvements in student engagement and exam performance from using 3D interactive learning tools. The university is using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy from Gale, a Cengage company, to conduct virtual 3D exploration. Now students and instructors can interactively explore anatomy from every angle, streamlining lectures and lab work that fosters an active learning environment improving student outcomes. Read the blog post from one of the university's assistant professors about how he's using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy for teaching.

Ranked among the best medical schools in the country for research and innovation, the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine is located in Iowa City, with nearly 600 medical students enrolled. With a strong commitment to supporting student success, the university needed an interactive resource that gives students a clear and complete understanding of the human body, where students can visualize essential concepts with hands-on interaction. They chose Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy, a 3D interactive learning tool.

Darren Hoffmann, assistant professor in the university's department of anatomy and cell biology, has a passion for discovering new ways to improve the quality of learning and the student experience in anatomy coursework with 3D interactive learning. Before using Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy, Hoffmann purchased an app to create videos for each of his lectures. This was very time consuming and had limitations for adequately preparing students for labs.

"When you put a ton of objects in front of someone, they don't know what to look at. That's really the magic piece of Gale Interactive," said Hoffmann. "It's preconstructed in the sense that it's oriented around a specific region or concept, but it's completely free play for the students when they start going into it."

Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy is an innovative learning aid that allows students to examine virtual 3D structures of the human body with guided instruction that's aligned with course curriculum. Created with both students and faculty in mind, it can be used for in-classroom demonstrations or help with homework and research assignments. The interactive aspect allows students to dive deeper into complex concepts with tools that allow them to zoom, rotate and explore the human body in real-life scenarios.

"Guidance: That's the most important, unique feature of Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy. That's what keeps me coming back," said Hoffmann. "I can trust my students to go there on their own and they can figure it out. The structure of the interface and the website is very clear and obvious what you're going to see when you go to click on a session."

For Hoffmann, the best scenario for students in an anatomy course is to blend live dissection with a really good 3D model, which is what Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy makes possible. Using 3D Anatomy tools to prepare his students for cadaver dissections resulted in dissections being completed quicker and subsequently led to improved exam performance.

"On comprehensive exams, scores went up for those who used these 3D anatomy tools as pre-lab prep," said Hoffmann. "Most importantly, feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. They want more! They want the same type of resource for other subjects. I know that Gale Interactive is making a difference. It's giving people a way to actually see what's real in a way that's stylized and almost hyper-real."

Read the entire story about the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine success with Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy.

Gale will showcase Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy at the Experimental Biology Conference, April 7-9 in Orlando, FL at Gale booth #1041 and at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, April 10-13 in Cleveland at the Gale booth #311.

To request a free trial, visit the Gale Interactive: Human Anatomy webpage.

About Cengage and Gale
Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. The company serves the higher education, K-12, professional, library and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.

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Kayla Siefker, Gale, a Cengage company
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SOURCE Gale, a Cengage company