Objectives Materials and Methods
Objectives Materials and Methods
The aim of this pilot qualitative study was to gather student comments and feedback on how the HVOD method aided their learning of anatomy , how it differed from conventional learning methods , and what values it added to the learning experience .
PARTICIPANTS
Thirteen MSc in Human Anatomy students agreed to participate in the study . No exclusion criteria were applied . Written , informed consent was obtained from all the students and ethical approval was obtained from the institutional Social Research Ethics Committee ( Log # 2021-242 ).
THE HVOD WORKSHOP
The principles of the HVOD were delivered online using Zoom ( San Jose , CA : Zoom Video Communications Inc ). The workshop was conducted by the co-author L . S . and was run over 2 consecutive days , 3 hours each day . Workshop materials were provided to all participants and included A3 and A4 sheets of paper , a piece of 6B graphite , an HB pencil , a sharpener , a ball-peen hammer and a plastic humerus . The HVOD method is a stepwise process involving stages aimed at i ) preparing the observer to make a wide variety of upper limb movements ( required to make marks on the paper that adequately reflect what they are observing ), followed by ii ) careful visual and haptic observation of the object , and then iii ) making marks that represent the 3D form of the object on a 2D surface viz paper ( Reid et al ., 2019 ; Shapiro et al ., 2020 ). On the first day of the workshop , after introducing the principles of the HVOD method , the participants were encouraged to practice making a variety of marks generated through their hand movements using graphite on paper ( see Figure 1 ). Following this , the principle of haptic and visual observation was introduced . Haptic observation was achieved through the application of the Exploratory Procedures ( EPs ), particularly lateral motion , contour following , and enclosure ( grasping ) as previously described by Lederman and Klatzky ( Lederman and Klatzky , 1993 ). Participants were directed first to observe with both the sense of sight and touch , then asked to close their eyes and explore the hammer using touch only . Following this , the hammer was examined from different angles until the participants had gathered sufficient visual and haptic input from it . Students spent roughly 15 minutes practicing this exercise . The next step was the application of what was learned in the previous two steps , viz the making of marks on paper which reflected their haptic and visual observation of the hammer ( see Figure 2 ). This exercise lasted 35 minutes . In this exercise , participants were directed to visually and haptically observe the hammer with one hand , and simultaneously make concomitant graphite marks on the paper with the other hand ( see Figure 3 ). They were encouraged to transfer all surface features of the hammer onto the paper with emphasis on representing the form of the hammer rather than creating an aesthetically pleasing drawing . To ensure that the participants were making proper effective EPs with one hand , and reflected these gestures with the drawing hand , the instructor observed the participants ’ upper limb movements and evaluated the marks that they made on paper . Parts of the hammer that were represented by marks whose collective arrangement on paper corresponded to the hammers form , were considered to be more effectively observed ( Shapiro et al ., 2020 ) ( see Figure 4 ). After applying the HVOD method to the ball-peen hammer on the first day of the workshop , and once the observation and drawing skills were mastered , participants reapplied the HVOD method to the humerus on the second day of the workshop in order to understand its form . ( see Figure 5 ).