Increasing student engagement in physiology - the use of simple spinal reflex animations

Summary 1. Simple spinal refle xa nimations were developed to help overcome a common student misconception that the brain is part of spinal refle xp athways. A lo wc ognitive load approach and best practice principles were used to generate stretch refle x, Golgi tendon refle xa nd withdrawal refle xa nimations. Resting membrane potential, graded responses and action potentials were represented by a simple colour code rather than by comple xv oltage-time graphs. 2. Pre-test post-test evaluation indicated a significant improvement in student understanding of spinal refle xes. Although this improvement cannot be entirely attributed to the animations the yw ere successful in engaging the students with 92% of students surveyed (n=85) agreeing that the animations were a useful aid to their learning. 3. The benefits of the lo wc ognitive a pproach and advantages and disadvantages of using physiology analogies (including animations) as a student-learning tool are discussed.