Educators, Students Dissecting Bodies Virtually During COVID-19

Educators, Students Dissecting Bodies Virtually During COVID-19

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DAYTON, Ohio —  If you’ve ever taken grade school biology, you might’ve had to dissect something — like a frog. But this is not grade school.


What You Need To Know

  • University of Dayton is using a virtual anatomy table to teach the class
  • The technology allows the teacher and students to still do dissections on the screen of the table
  • The virtual table is being used in conjunction with real cadavers

In these college classes at University of Dayton, you dissect the human body. That is, until COVID-19 hit.

“It kinda stunk that, that got cut short and we didn’t get to see all the body systems that we thought we were going to,” said student Olivia Rassel.

Rassel is studying health sciences at the university. This year, she says she had take her anatomy classes a different way to get her college credits.

“It’s all based off of scans from actual bodies. You can see the differences in how people’s body types vary and how it affects their overall health,” said Rassel.

Students are virtually dissecting and studying the inside of a body with the help of technology — a virtual anatomy table.

“It’s a lot easier to control the images yourself,” said Associate Professor Anne Crecelius.

Crecelius is using it to teach her anatomy class.

“I can still do dissections like we are used to doing in the lab, where we can actually make a cut, and open, and dissect out,” said Crecelius.

She says students can do the virtual dissection during their in-person classes, while students at home watch.

She says they’re working on ways to expand the program to be interactive for remote learners, too.

“Some graduate programs are actually going to more virtual-based anatomy because of the cost, so we feel like it’s helping to prepare students for what they might see in the future,” said Crecelius.

A different kind of experience educators hope students will use in health care after they graduate.

University of Dayton recently was able to buy the virtual anatomy table thanks to donations.

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