Online veterinary anatomy education during Covid‐19 pandemic in Iran: Challenges and opportunities

BACKGROUND: The covid‐19 pandemic changed veterinary anatomy in‐person training to inexperienced virtual training rapidly. OBJECTIVES: This survey was designed to assess the perceptions of first‐ and second‐year Iranian veterinary students on learning outcomes during the online transition. METHODS: The opinions of 684 students were examined using questionnaire. RESULTS: The data showed that 23.8% of students were interested in learning anatomy online and 24.8% were satisfied with it. Only 13.5% of the students in the survey generally agree with replacing remote teaching with ordinary training. Less than 1% of students considered online education suitable for the practical part of anatomy. Most of the students' sources for theoretical part included professor's booklets, narrated PowerPoint lectures, in‐class notes, and anatomy books. Professors' dissection videos, YouTube videos and also anatomy atlases were the most used sources for practical part. Many students (69.3%) were comfortable using technology. Few numbers of the students (36.1%) were satisfied with the result of the online anatomy exam. Students commented missing dissection, lack of interaction and technology challenges as main negative‐points of E‐learning. While time management and reviewing the recorded lessons was described as one of the most important benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Online education cannot replace face‐to‐face education in anatomy and it can be used along ordinary training as an additional educational tool. However, group online learning activities, using dissection videos and 3‐D software are suggested for online learning. The data of this study, collected for the first time in Iran, can be used for future decisions in veterinary anatomy.