In the early 2000s, the HAPS Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) committee embarked on a multi-year project that resulted in the development of HAPS Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) learning outcomes. These learning outcomes were developed for 2-semester human A&P courses, and served as a benchmark for instructors who are currently teaching A&P courses, or as a guide for those individuals developing new A&P courses. These learning outcomes were well received, and many publishers have since adopted or incorporated these outcomes into their own learning materials. In addition, the HAPS Comprehensive A&P exam questions were developed by mapping to these learning outcomes.
Unfortunately, the A&P learning outcomes are not as useful for those of us who teach stand-alone anatomy (or stand-alone physiology) courses. A new set of learning outcomes needed to be developed for each of these stand-alone courses. With that in mind, the HAPS Testing Committee embarked on a multi-year project to create and develop the HAPS Anatomy Learning Outcomes.
Why the HAPS Testing committee and not the C&I committee, you ask? We quickly realized that anatomy-specific learning outcomes needed to be developed by individuals who teach stand-alone anatomy courses – and most of the C&I members did not teach such a course, whereas many members of the HAPS Testing committee did. In addition, the HAPS Testing committee also has the goal of creating a HAPS anatomy-specific comprehensive exam – but before an exam could be created, the learning outcomes needed to be fleshed out.
The process of creating anatomy-specific learning outcomes involved multiple revision cycles involving members of the Testing Committee as well as members of the Anatomy Testing task force (experts charged with the task of developing the HAPS anatomy exam, under the purview of the HAPS Exam Program). We used the HAPS A&P learning outcomes as a template, but ensured the learning outcomes were written with a stand-alone anatomy course in mind. We greatly appreciate the assistance of ADInstruments, as they helped fund several off-site meetings with the task force in order to finalize these learning outcomes. We completed our task in early 2018 and introduce to you all – the HAPS anatomy learning outcomes! Please visit the website to learn more and download the outcomes.
As with the A&P learning outcomes, the HAPS Anatomy learning outcomes are to serve as a guide and benchmark only. We do not expect all anatomy instructors to cover every single learning outcome, they may address the learning outcomes in whatever order they like, and they are welcome to include additional learning outcomes in their own courses.
We hope you find these learning outcomes of use in your anatomy courses! Many thanks to the HAPS testing committee members and the HAPS anatomy exam panel for their hard work in this effort.