The Master of Science in Medical Physiology program at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University was designed to improve the academic readiness and application competitiveness of students seeking admission to medical and dental school programs. The 30-credit, course-based program establishes a strong foundation of knowledge in human physiology. To accomplish the goal of improving academic readiness, the program curriculum leverages evidence-based best practices for long-term content retention. In addition to frequent no- and low-stakes formative assessments to improve content mastery, the lecture-based program courses integrate the use of virtual resources to provide opportunities for dual-coding, interleaving, and spaced retrieval of content to integrate and reinforce content. Our Medical Physiology I (8 credits) and II (6 credits) courses utilize required Lt Lessons by ADI Instruments to introduce key concepts and facilitate pre-class learning. Additional optional lessons provide opportunities for self-directed content reinforcement and integration. The lecture based Medical Anatomy (2 credits) course (which does not incorporate dissection) utilizes Anatomy App, a web-based collection of 3D interactive anatomy models. Model manipulation and interactive quizzes at tiered difficulty levels provide students with robust opportunities for dual coding, interleaving, and retrieval practice. The lecture-based Medical Histology (2 credits) utilizes Histology Guide, an extensive web-based collection of high-resolution interactive micrographs in lieu of hands-on microscopy. Manipulation of images in this exceptionally well-curated collection of micrographs simulates the lab-based microscopy experience with a resolution and clarity far exceeding the student experience in a traditional teaching laboratory. In addition, the course utilizes open access textbooks (Anatomy and Physiology (I and II): An Interactive Histology Atlas), which feature interactive H5P elements allowing students to slide a vertical bar left and right to either reveal a hand-drawn illustration overlay or hide it to expose the underlying micrograph. Together, these interactive virtual lab resources provide robust opportunities for dual-coding, interleaving, and spaced retrieval to integrate and reinforce content mastery. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Patel et al. (Fri,) studied this question.