Experience in implementing innovative methods in teaching histology, cytology, and embryology under pandemic and war conditions in Ukraine

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26641/1997-9665.2025.3.223-228

Keywords:

histology, cytology, embryology, higher medical education, innovative teaching methods, pandemic, war.

Abstract

Teaching histology, cytology, and embryology in higher medical education in Ukraine faces a variety of challenges, including the overall transformation of medical education (digitalization, implementation of new teaching and learning methods) and the increasing volume of educational content that students are required to master (ranging from light microscopy data to the latest findings in molecular biology and genetics). Additional challenges include global and local contemporary issues (the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine) as well as “traditional” difficulties in teaching these disciplines (theoretical complexity of the subject, challenges in visually interpreting structures in histological images). These challenges underscore the relevance of developing and implementing innovative teaching methods for histology, cytology, and embryology. The first innovative approach involved optimizing the channels through which educational content is delivered to students. In 2018, an educational website for histology, cytology, and embryology was launched, serving as an open platform for providing students with access to learning materials. Another significant step in enhancing the educational process was the introduction of video lectures as an additional learning resource, complementing traditional synchronous lectures and practical sessions. To facilitate students’ comprehension of visually complex histological images, original illustrative materials were developed and integrated into the curriculum, ranging from digital schematics and schematic-realistic drawings to histological slides and animated models. A survey of 364 students from medical and dental faculties demonstrated the high effectiveness of these methods. The use of the website ensures material organization and ease of access; video lectures allow for asynchronous learning at an individual pace; and original illustrative materials help overcome difficulties in visually interpreting histological structures. The combined application of traditional and digital methods enhances the quality of learning, promotes independent study, and ensures continuity of the educational process even under crisis conditions.

References

  1. Silva RSE, de Lima P, Guedert DG, Freire GDCL, Cerqueira GS. The increasing inclusion of technologies in histology teaching: a systematic review. Morphologie. 2024;108(362):100784. doi: 10.1016/j.morpho.2024.100784.
  2. Galli C, Colangelo MT, Mirandola P, Guizzardi S. Seeing to learn and learning to see: histology teaching between new technologies, old paradigms and natural cyborgs. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 2025. doi: 10.1007/s10459-025-10451-6.
  3. Pawlina W, Ross MH, authors: Histology: A Text and Atlas: With Correlated Cell and Molecular Biology, 8e. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a Wolters Kluwer business; 2018. 928 p.
  4. Kristoffersen CSM, Ziesler CEØ, Thune NH, Kristensen AT, Sehic A, Utheim TP, Khan Q. Towards a Modernized Framework of Histology Teaching to Integrate Genetics: Pedagogical Perspectives for Oral Histology. Genes (Basel). 2025;16(5):512. doi: 10.3390/genes16050512.
  5. Avilova O, Erokhina V, Mpoloeng K, Luckrajh J, Vovk O, Stepanenko O, Nguyen DTU. Experience of distance learning of medical science disciplines as a result of the global pandemic COVID-19 in Ukraine and South Africa. Duzce Medical Journal. 2022;24(1):26–33. doi: 10.18678/dtfd.1036902.
  6. Joaquim DC, de Melo Leite ACR, de Castro Viana L, Mendes DLM, Furtado IPB, de Hollanda Celestino JJ, Hortsch M, Girão-Carmona VCC. The impact of students’ socio-economic background, study habits, and technology access on their histology learning strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical Science Educator. 2025;35:137–48. doi: 10.1007/s40670-024-02154-1).
  7. Kohut O, Sikora T, Vdovychyn N. [Challenges of studying and teaching in war conditions]. Youth and the Market. 2022;6(204):83–88. Ukrainian.
  8. Malyk YYu, Semeniuk TO, Penteleichuk NP. [Experience and problems in the teaching of histology, cytology and embryology]. Bukovinian Medical Herald. 2019;23(1(89)):145-150. Ukrainian.
  9. Breus VYe, Kuvshinova II, Tiron OI, Markova OO. [Ways of improvement of histology, cytology and embryology teaching]. Integrative Anthropology. 2016;(1):78-81. Ukrainian.
  10. Amin NF., Shamim KM. Presentation pattern of histology and illustrations in the histology textbooks commonly used by the medical undergraduates of Bangladesh. Mymensingh Medical Journal. 2017;26(1):159–68.
  11. Meyer GT. Online, interactive, digital visualisation resources that enhance histology education. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 2023;1421:125–60. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-30379-1_6.
  12. Robson A, Scantling-Birch Y, Morton S, Anbu D, Border S. Assessing the impact of interactive educational videos and screencasts within pre-clinical microanatomy and medical physiology teaching. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 2022;1356:319–43. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-87779-8_14.
  13. Stepanenko OYu, Maryenko NI. Website of the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology of Kharkiv National Medical University [Internet]. Kharkiv: Kharkiv National Medical University; 2018. Available from: https:// histologyknmu.wixsite.com/info.
  14. Maryenko NI. Histology – Lectures by Nataliia Maryenko [Internet]. Kharkiv: Kharkiv National Medical University; 2020. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/@histology-kharkiv.
  15. Stepanenko OYu. Histology. Lectures by Professor Oleksandr Stepanenko [Internet]. Kharkiv: Kharkiv National Medical University; 2025. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/@ Oleksandr Stepanenko.

Downloads

Published

2025-10-30

How to Cite

Stepanenko , O., & Maryenko , N. (2025). Experience in implementing innovative methods in teaching histology, cytology, and embryology under pandemic and war conditions in Ukraine. Морфологія / Morphologia / Morfologìâ, 19(3), 223–228. https://doi.org/10.26641/1997-9665.2025.3.223-228

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 3 (2025)

Section

Статті

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 The authors reserve the right to authorship of their work and transfer to the Journal the right to the first publication of this work under the terms of a license Creative commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which allows other people to freely distribute the published work with a mandatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
        By submitting a manuscript to the editorial office of the Journal ‘Morphologia’ authors agree to transfer the rights to protect and use the manuscript (all supplemental materials, particularly protected objects such as photos, drawings, diagrams, tables, etc.), including the reproduction in the press and distribution via the Internet; translation of the manuscript into any language; export and import of journal copies with the Authors’ article in order to make it available for public. Authors convey the rights mentioned above to the editorial office without any temporal or territorial limitation all over the world. 
        The Authors guarantee that they have the exclusive rights to use the material transferred to editorial office. Editors are not responsible to third parties for contraventions of warranty given by the Authors. The considered rights are transferred to the editorial office since the moment when the current issue is signed for publishing. Reproduction of materials published in the Journal by other individuals and legal entities is possible only with the consent of Editorial office, with the obligatory indication of the full bibliographic reference of the primary publication. The Authors reserve the right to use the published material, its fragments and parts for teaching materials, oral presentations, dissertation thesis prepararion with obligatory bibliographic citation of the original paper. Electron copy of the published article, downloaded from official journal web-site in .pdf format may be put by authors on the official web-site of their institutions, any other official resources with open access.