Blog
Jul 01

UGM 2021: Teaching, technology, trials and beyond

One of our favorite things is to listen to our users’ stories of teaching. And nothing excites us more than connecting with our users over their teaching stories of challenges and success during our annual Users Group Meetings.

With that said, when the pandemic hit us last year, our cancellation of the annual Users Group Meeting was an emotional decision. Though losing the ability to interact in person, we found ways to bond with our users hearing their concerns, worries, and hopes. That’s when we’ve realized the trials brought by the pandemic fueled creativity, courage, and strength out of our users turning their hardship into awe-inspiring stories.

As inspiration begets inspiration, we orchestrated the Users Group Meeting 2021 to invite these users as storytellers and retell their success to all event attendees. 

Among those stories that exemplify how hardship could be turned into an opportunity, Sandy Brown’s journey of navigating last year’s teaching adversity stood out. 

Remote – And Real – Anatomy During COVID19

Like everyone else, Sandy immediately sought solutions when the pandemic forced the closure of in-person anatomy labs. To Sandy, it’s important for her students to continue to experience interactive anatomy during virtual learning. And that’s where virtual anatomy labs came to play.

Sandy worked with Jacksonville University, Anatomage, and her peers to facilitate a virtual anatomy lab – which included:

  • Remote desktop
  • Two computers
  • Zoom account
  • IT intel from the university and Anatomage
  • An Anatomage Table

To make it work, Sandy connected the Anatomage Table with her desktop where she could access all of the Table’s content and functionalities remotely. Then, she invited her students to join a Zoom session in which students were granted permission to remotely control her screen. That way, students were able to interact with the cadavers and all of the Table’s functionalities right at their homes.

And the result is

It wasn’t an easy task. In fact, it took “the whole village” to make it happen. Using virtual anatomy and physiology learning platforms – such as TableOnCloud (TOC), Anatomage eBook – Sandy and her teams at Jacksonville University have created a virtual anatomy laboratory space to assist student learning. And with TOC featuring real anatomy content from the Anatomage Table, the virtual anatomy lab provided students remote access to real cadavers for anatomy visualization and interaction. 

Sandy’s relentlessness transformed teaching hardship into a learning opportunity. Today as things are back to normal, Jacksonville’s students can now experience in-person labs with physical Anatomage Tables. But that doesn’t mean remote access to Anatomage Table is no longer used. Offering the convenience of creating anatomy content anywhere, anytime, TOC continues to be leveraged as additional resources for both learning and teaching activities.

Currently, Sandy Brown’s presentation can be viewed on-demand via Cvent. 

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