MindMap: Developing and Evaluating a Novel Digital Revision Tool for Cranial Nerve Nuclei and Their Resulting Pathways

The cranial nerves are 12 pairs of nerves which emerge from the base of the brain brainstem and are responsible for a myriad of sensory and motor functions across the head and neck. Learning the anatomy of these nerves is difficult, requiring strong spatial skills, mental visualisation of abstract anatomy and an understanding of the internal brainstem histology (Lack et al. 2022). Despite this, most teaching resources available to students rely solely on 2D histology. This research therefore aims to design and develop a novel cranial nerve revision resource which embeds 2D histology within a digital 3D model. Developed as an online application, ‘MindMap’ targets this gap in the current literature, and its effectiveness was evaluated through a variety of feedback acquired from life science student and staff cohorts within the University of Glasgow. This feedback provided a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data which highlight the application’s impact on student comprehension, usability and motivation. Open-feedback responses provided further insight into the student and staff user experience. Unexpectedly, the results obtained contradicted the hypothesised response—with student and staff participants in disagreement. Staff responded more positively to the application than students. Although mixed responses were collected, the findings suggest participants were receptive to the concept of an integrated resource which highlights histology and gross anatomy features of the cranial nerves within a single 3D model. With development, ‘MindMap’ has the potential to improve student comprehension of the cranial nerve pathways and act as a supplementary revision resource. Further research is required to determine whether the feedback from the student participant reflects that of a wider student population or if this response is a potential outlier.