Connecting the dots

"I get lost in the nitty-gritty of the tiny mechanisms and I forget about how it all fits together".  

This comment came from a student representative in our first-year allied health cohort and captured a challenge familiar to many educators. Students often learn individual concepts successfully but struggle to understand how those concepts connect within a broader framework. 

For those teaching content-heavy courses, this challenge is particularly relevant. As universities increasingly embrace interdisciplinary and interprofessional education (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2023), students need more than subject knowledge alone. They need to understand relationships, systems and connections that underpin future learning and professional practice. 

In 2025, eight student representatives from five allied health programs at UNSW met to discuss strengths, challenges and opportunities within an integrated anatomy and physiology course. Representing approximately 350 students, they highlighted many positive aspects of the course, including interactive tutorials, practical classes, case-based learning activities and supportive teaching staff. 

However, one recurring theme emerged: students wanted more support in understanding how concepts connected across topics and body systems. 

In response, we introduced a course-wide mind map. 

The mind map brought together content from Weeks 1–10 and visually demonstrated the connections between anatomical structures and physiological processes across different body systems. Rather than presenting topics as isolated units, the mind map showed how concepts throughout the course were linked. The aim was to provide students with a visual guide that could help them organise knowledge, identify patterns and connect detailed mechanisms to broader system-level processes. 

Mind mapping is not a new educational strategy. Drawing on Novak's theory of meaningful learning, mind maps help learners make relationships between concepts and connect new knowledge to existing understanding (Novak, 2010).  

For anatomy and physiology students, visual representations can also help manage cognitive load by organising complex information into more memorable structures and highlighting relationships that may be difficult to recognise through text alone (Bolatli & Bolatli, 2024). Rather than focusing solely on isolated facts, students can begin to appreciate the interconnected nature of human biology. 

The response from students was overwhelmingly positive: 

"This has been the best course I've done in uni so far." 

"SOMS1912 is the most engaging, fun and interesting course." 

"This course was exceptionally well-structured and thoughtfully delivered… making even complex topics accessible and easier to grasp. The quality of the resources provided was outstanding, supporting both in-class learning and independent study." 

"It was very interesting to learn about and I like how the lecturers didn't just talk about the bare minimum." 

While it’s difficult to attribute these outcomes solely to the mind map, the resource appeared to support students' ability to synthesise and organise content, particularly when preparing for the end-of-course examination. 

This experience reinforced a powerful message: fewer words can communicate more. Visual tools such as mind maps and infographics can be used in place of heavy texts to convey complex ideas.  

Reflecting on this initiative, the next step may be to move beyond providing students with a completed mind map and instead involve them in creating it. Co-constructing visual representations of knowledge would encourage students to actively identify relationships, develop systems thinking and strengthen their ability to communicate complex concepts. Through this process, students would not simply consume information; they would participate in organising, synthesising and making meaning from it. 

As educators, we have an opportunity to design learning experiences that prioritise relationships, patterns and connections. We can help learners develop the skills needed to synthesise, communicate and apply complex knowledge – ensuring they are no longer lost in the “nitty-gritty” but able to connect the dots.