An Upper-Division, Remote Microbiology Laboratory That Blends Virtual and Hands-on Components to Promote Student Success during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Guzman-Cole, Candace; García‐Ojeda, Marcos E.

doi:10.1128/jmbe.00328-21

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…A virtual microbiology laboratory developed for pharmacy students was found to be as effective as the wet laboratory 47 . Students who used the virtual microbiology laboratory had a greater understanding of microbiology concepts, demonstrated proficiency and better performance 2 . Virtual simulation operation was a teaching tool found effective in teaching clinical skills as well and garnered positive response from the students 48 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3-D interactive microbiology laboratory via virtual reality for enhancing practical skills

Chitra,

Mubin,

Nadarajah

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Virtual Reality (VR) laboratories are a new pedagogical approach to support psychomotor skills development in undergraduate programmes to achieve practical competency. VR laboratories are successfully used to carry out virtual experiments in science courses and for clinical skills training in professional courses. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a VR-based microbiology laboratory on Head-Mounted Display (HMD) for undergraduate students. Student and faculty perceptions and expectations were collected to incorporate into the laboratory design. An interactive 3-dimensional VR laboratory with a 360° view was developed simulating our physical laboratory setup. The laboratory environment was created using Unity with the (created) necessary assets and 3D models. The virtual laboratory was designed to replicate the physical laboratory environment as suggested by the students and faculty. In this VR laboratory, six microbiology experiments on Gram staining, bacterial streaking, bacterial motility, catalase test, oxidase test and biochemical tests were placed on the virtual platform. First-year biomedical science students were recruited to evaluate the VR laboratory. Students’ perception of the virtual laboratory was positive and encouraging. About 70% of the students expressed they felt safe using the VR laboratory and that it was engaging. They felt that the VR laboratory provided an immersive learning experience. They appreciated that they could repeat each experiment multiple times without worrying about mistakes or mishaps. They could personalise their learning by concentrating on the specific experiments. Our in-house VR-based microbiology laboratory was later extended to other health professions programmes teaching microbiology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3-D interactive microbiology laboratory via virtual reality for enhancing practical skills

Chitra,

Mubin,

Nadarajah

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Through this research, the retention, revision, and new implementation of digital tools to enhance in-person or digital learning environments has transformed biology laboratory education (Bontanelli et al, 2020;Sousa et al, 2022). While many positive advancements in biology education and digital tool use were revealed during the pandemic transition to online instruction (Guzman-Cole et al, 2022;Sweeney et al, 2022), barriers and "deficiencies in the use of technology in education" were also exposed (Bawa, 2020;Chidzonga et al, 2022, p 2;Sarvary et al, 2022;Wilkerson et al, 2022).…”

Section: Digital Tool Retention: Post Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The identification of digital tools, such as immersive virtual reality (VR) (Wilkerson et al, 2022), virtual simulations (Guzman-Cole et al, 2022Tripepi, 2021), videos of laboratory activities and dissections (Burnham et al, 2023;Jayanth et al, 2022), Researcher Avatar (RA) activity (Galvadon et al, 2022), Storyline 360 interactive lab activities (Sweeney et al, 2022), and at-home microscopes or lab kits (Lionetti et al, 2022;Guzman-Cole et al, 2022), used during the pandemic has been shown to provide adequate and valuable alternatives to in-person lab instruction. Additionally, online labs allow students to work at their own pace in distractionfree learning environments while preserving the educational goals of biology lab courses (Sweeney et al, 2022).…”

Section: Digital Tool Retention: Post Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Digital tool barriers can negatively impact distance education, including online learning, virtual learning environments, and digital/online lab courses (Bawa, 2020). At the instructional level, barriers include cost, accessibility among students, lack of instructor training, and instructor and student resistance to change (Chidzonga et al, 2022;Guzman-Cole et al, 2022;Keleş et al, 2022). At the institutional level, challenges exposed during emergency remote teaching (ERT) included inadequate infrastructure, lack of technical expertise for digital tool implementation, incompatibility with existing equipment and software, poor maintenance and support, and insufficient data security of personal information (Butt et al, 2022;Chidzonga et al, 2022).…”

Section: Digital Tool Retention: Post Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research literature provided insight into the pandemic-induced and current digital tool use and biology and microbiology lab course trends. Instructional-level barriers, such as cost, accessibility among students, lack of instructor training, as well as instructor and student resistance to change, course-level requirements, and lab skill development, positively effects the adoption of digital tools (Chidzonga et al, 2022;Guzman-Cole et al, 2022;Keleş et al, 2022).…”

Section: Digital Tool Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Instructors and Underrepresented Students in Microbiology: Educational Digital Tool Use, Trends, Perceptions, and Success

Bradshaw-Ward

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The purpose of this three-article dissertation was to expand knowledge and theory regarding digital tool use in biology laboratory courses, such as microbiology, which requires specific laboratory skill development through the perception of instructors and students. Article 1 establishes the broad digital literacy and fluency problem in education by providing definitions and the context behind digital literacy fluency and its impact on acquisition of knowledge in digital learning environments. The study provided a picture of the lack of knowledge about the use of digital tools in education and practical problems around appropriate implementation, infrastructure, and preparedness. Article 2 presents results of a literature research study about the foundational, pandemic-induced, and current digital tool use in biology and microbiology lab courses. Recommendations for improvement in digital tool implementation, pedagogical approach, and appropriate selection to meet learning outcomes were provided. Article 3 describes a 3-layered study to build a new instrument to understand minority-student perceptions of identity and digital literacy and technology barriers on student success in STEM courses. The study identified challenges and benefits of digital tool use in virtual microbiology lab courses, unique challenges of underrepresented populations, and the need to develop an instrument to capture the context of this unique population.

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Redevelopment of undergraduate food microbiology capstone projects for unprecedented emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: then and now

Zhang

Ranadheera

2023

Microbiol. Aust.

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Unprecedented emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 lockdowns has hindered research-based learning in the life sciences worldwide, holding potential consequences for the students’ ability to develop essential skills for the contemporary workforce. In this article, we report redevelopment of an undergraduate capstone subject in the food science major at The University of Melbourne for bichronous ERT delivery, which previously aimed to provide students with analytical, problem-solving and communication skills through laboratory-based practical experimentation or internship projects. When in-person exchanges became unfeasible during 2020, we redesigned the online learning environment to best facilitate personalised learning and collaborative relationships between learners, instructors and subject content. This includes the redevelopment of laboratory-based projects as data mining or literature reviews delivered under four major themes including food microbiology. Despite the drawbacks in peer-based interactions through remote delivery, participation in design-based research remains a viable approach to support students in gaining essential transferrable skills during ERT.

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An Upper-Division, Remote Microbiology Laboratory That Blends Virtual and Hands-on Components to Promote Student Success during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: The COVID-19 shutdown forced many institutions of higher education to shift in-person teaching to emergency remote teaching. This was particularly challenging for laboratory courses, where students are expected to learn hands-on skills needed for their career goals.

Cited by 4 publications

References 40 publications

A 3-D interactive microbiology laboratory via virtual reality for enhancing practical skills

A 3-D interactive microbiology laboratory via virtual reality for enhancing practical skills

Instructors and Underrepresented Students in Microbiology: Educational Digital Tool Use, Trends, Perceptions, and Success

Redevelopment of undergraduate food microbiology capstone projects for unprecedented emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: then and now

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