Why Students Choose or Don’t Choose to Use an Online Pathology Museum

Introduction: Online materials are replacing traditional pathology museums and microscopes. The interactivity of these ranges from static pictures to virtual slides. In this study, we examined how students chose to interact with magnifiable, rotating, macroscopic specimens versus static pictures. The study focuses on motivation to interact with the extended online resource when it was supplementary to, but not required to, answer questions in an online assignment. Methods: Students in a fourth-year anatomic pathology course (N = 102) completed online clinical-case-based learning activities. Students’ interaction with online rotatable specimens and the underlying reasons were investigated using a self-developed online post-course survey. Results: The 360° rotatable specimens were viewed by 81% of students. Coding of responses to open-end questions identified two short-term motivators (more information and relevant to the question) and two long-term motivators (a better understanding of pathology and helpful for examinations) for viewing dynamic specimen representations. Students reported two reasons for not viewing every online specimen: They could complete activities using the static images, and long loading times for pathology museum pages. Conclusions: Students who interacted with relevant online specimens were motivated by both the short-term and long-term expectancy value. The research has implications for designing other online resources—the key to students using them is to design for expectancy value. © 2018, International Association of Medical Science Educators.