Histology and Embryology is a basic and compulsory course for medical undergraduates who major in clinical, forensic, preventive, oral, nursing and basic medicine. It is the foundation for students to learn further courses such as Pathology, Physiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology. This course consists of two closely associated parts, Histology and Embryology. Histology teaches students to observe various cells, tissues and organs systemically by using observation equipment like microscope combined with different staining methods, so as to master their micro-structures and have a preliminary understanding of their functions. Embryology offers students the opportunity of observing the morphological changes from a fertilized ovum to a mature fetus, consequently allows them to perform researches on the formation, evolution and the relevant mechanisms for each organ and system. With the development of science and technology, a great number of breakthroughs have been made in terms of theories, research methodologies and achievements for Histology and Embryology. New vitality and charms have been brought to this old course with the proliferation of updated theories, techniques and modernized research instruments and equipment as well as the permeation of multidisciplinary influence.
With the popularization and advancement of Internet technology, this course has kept up with the times in innovating and applying teaching methods, developing and accumulating teaching resources, as well as constructing and cultivating the teaching team. As for the accumulation of teaching resources, our teaching team members have published, as chief editors or editors, 11 national-level and 14 self-compiled school-level textbooks and supplementary materials. As for the experiment teaching, we released our own Chinese-English bilingual electronic gallery teaching platform, digital test database and a mobile phone APP with independent intellectual property rights. Our teaching members have years of abroad teaching experiences and abundant practical teaching experience in Histology and Embryology for international students. In recent years, our teaching members have actively participated in the teaching reforms and headed more than 20 teaching reform projects. Five of them won grand or first prize in school-level teaching competitions, or second prize for excellent teaching reform cases. As for scientific research, our teaching team members have hosted 6 National Natural Science Fund projects and published more than 20 SCI articles. In 2019, our online and offline Histology and Embryology courses were granted the titles of Shaanxi Province Excellent Online Course and First-rate Offline Course respectively. In the future, we will continuously summarize our experience, update teaching conception, diversify teaching methods and serve the teaching with researches, so as to build a more innovative, advanced and provocative course.
The newly-released international Histology and Embryology online course is constituted by 53 carefully selected and produced teaching videos (with English subtitles), as well as the whole set of teaching PPT, quiz bank, exercises and discussion questions, all in English. Online question-answering and mentoring will be given by teaching members in English, too. With the concerted endeavors of all teachers, we believe this course will keep developing and improving. And we will actively cooperate with the off-line teaching of Histology and Embryology for international students both in our school and other peer colleges, to achieve on-and-off-line mixed teaching mode, transfer the teaching methods, improve the teaching outcomes, and maintain all-around development of students.
