Effectiveness of Three-Dimensional Digital Animation in Teaching Human Anatomy in an Authentic Classroom Context Nady Hoyek, 1 * Christian Collet, 1 Franck Di Rienzo, 1 Mickael De Almeida, 2 Aymeric Guillot 1,3 1 Centre de Recherche et d’Innovation sur le Sport-Laboratoire de la Performance Motrice, Mentale et du Mat  eriel, Universit  e Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France 2 Innovation Conception et Accompagnement en P  edagogie-Domaine Rockefeller, M ediathe ` que Paul Zech, Lyon, France 3 Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France Three-dimensional (3D) digital animations were used to teach the human musculoskeletal system to first year kinesiology students. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of this method by comparing two groups from two different academic years during two of their official required anatomy examinations (trunk and upper limb assess- ments). During the upper limb section, the teacher used two-dimensional (2D) drawings embedded into PowerPoint V R slides and 3D digital animations for the first group (2D group) and the second (3D group), respectively. The same 3D digital animations were used for both groups during the trunk section. The only difference between the two was the multimedia used to present the information during the upper limb section. The 2D group surprisingly outperformed the 3D group on the trunk assessment. On the upper limb assessment no difference in the scores on the overall anatomy examination was found. However, the 3D group outperformed the 2D group in questions requiring spatial ability. Data supported that 3D digital animations were effective instructional multimedia material tools in teaching human anatomy especially in recalling anatomical knowledge requiring spatial ability. The importance of evaluating the effectiveness of a new instruc- tional material outside laboratory environment (e.g., after a complete semester and on official examinations) was discussed. Anat Sci Educ 00: 000–000. V C 2014 American Association of Anatomists. Key words: gross anatomy education; computer assisted learning; animations; 3D digital animations; spatial ability; students’ performance; assessment; kinesiology program INTRODUCTION Teaching tools and techniques are permanently evolving. Sev- eral studies have already been conducted to compare new and traditional teaching methods in various topics. Mixed results have been found. Schwann and Riempp (2004) and Bodemer et al. (2004) provided evidence of the effectiveness of interactive dynamic visualizations when learning how to tie knots and how mechanical systems work respectively. In contrast, using dynamic media was less effective on learning meteorology (Lowe, 2004) and ecosystems (Zahn et al., 2004). Teaching human anatomy has been considerably changing during the last decade. Until recently, teaching human anat- omy in French medical schools consisted of drawing human anatomical structures on the board during lectures. During practical laboratory sessions dissection and/or prosection courses were given. The Brizon and Castaing booklets (1953a,b,c) had been extensively used as references for the study of the musculoskeletal system. Such documents included two-dimensional (2D) black and white drawings of the anatomical structures with their descriptions. Thiriet (1982) in doctoral dissertation questioned the pedagogical usefulness of such 2D-figures and plates. He underlined that 2D-figures elicited a high workload to encode and visualize. They require a clear representation and mental rotation of *Correspondence to: Dr. Nady Hoyek; Centre de Recherche et d’Innovation sur le Sport-Performance Motrice, Mentale et du Mat eriel (P3M); Universit e Claude Bernard-Lyon I-UFR STAPS; 27–29 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918-69 622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. E-mail: nady.hoyek@univ-lyon1.fr Received 3 June 2013; Revised 2 December 2013; Accepted 1 March 2014. Published online 00 Month 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ase.1446 V C 2014 American Association of Anatomists Anatomical Sciences Education MONTH 2014 Anat Sci Educ 00:00–00 (2014) RESEARCH REPORT