Development of interactive and engaging histology practical eBooks for first year medical students

Purpose: Students are increasingly using mobile devices during classes and one way to engage with these students, and to allow them to better engage with the content, is through the use of resources that have been specifically developed for these devices.

Method: Existing online histology practical notes were created into two eBooks using Apple’s free software iBooks Author. These iBooks, initially only accessible via iPads, now also accessible by any Apple computer, contained a number of interactive features including image galleries, interactive images, multimedia content, review questions and a glossary of almost 200 histological terms. These books were offered freely to students via their LMS in 2013 and 2014 as an alternative to, or to supplement, the online histology practical notes. Students were asked to provide feedback through anonymous online surveys.

Results: Initially, due to the limitation of iBooks only being available on iPads, only around one in four students had access to these resources. With the release of the new OS and iBooks for Mac, approximately 63% of students downloaded and accessed the Histology Practical Notes iBooks. Many of these students used the iBooks during practical classes with many working in small groups to discuss the review questions. Survey results, while only sampling a small number of students, were all very positive.

Conclusion: The proprietary nature of the iBooks limits its ability to reach all students. The interactive nature and instantaneous feedback to students on their progress makes them a useful tool for engaging the students in a context-specific manner.