Laboratory instruction in histology at the University at Buffalo: Recent replacement of microscope exercises with computer applications

Abstract

Histology is a morphologic science in which the structure of the cells, tissues, and organs of the body are examined with a microscope. In the laboratory courses in histology at the School of Medicine of the University at Buffalo, histologic specimens had been used since the late 19th century to teach the principles of cell, tissue, and organ structure. Students also had to learn how to analyze or "read" slides with a microscope. Learning histology in this way, i.e., by direct examination of actual specimens, is time consuming and viewed by some as unnecessary. As a result of recent curricular reform at the School of Medicine that reduced contact time in histology, half of all laboratory exercises that would have been performed with a microscope were performed instead with interactive computer applications. By replacing some microscope exercises with more efficient computer applications, the histology course accommodated curricular change by both reducing contact time and continuing to offer valuable microscope laboratories for most of the organ systems of the body. KEY WORDS: computer application; computer-assisted learning; education; histology; instruction; medical; microscopy Histology in the broadest sense is devoted to the study of the microscopic structure of the body. It includes the study of the components of cells and organs that are so small that they can only be seen when examined with a light microscope (Arey, 1968;Stedman, 1976). With the invention of the electron microscope, the subject of histology has also come to mean the study of structure that is beyond the resolution of the light microscope.Even before the end of the 19th century, students at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University at Buffalo (UB) were introduced to the principles of histology (Annual Announcements, 1846 -1873, 1873-1895Batt et al., 1996). Then and in subsequent years, the light microscope (which will be referred to simply as the microscope from this point forward) played a major role in their education. Indeed, at that time it was the best tool for teaching and learning histology, because by using a microscope, students could see how organs were constructed from cells and tissues.The preeminence of the microscope as a teaching device has been only recently challenged at UB by the replacement of microscopes with computers in the histology course that is taken by first-year medical and dental students. The change was necessitated by a reduction in the total amount of time that was allocated to the medical section of the course. Students required substantial amounts of time to work through microscope exercises, and with the reduction in time, it was necessary to either reduce the instructional content of the course or choose a more efficient way of teaching histology. To compensate for the reduction in contact time, advantage was taken of the efficiency with which laboratory exercises could be carried out with computer applications. In 1999 and 2000, half of the histology laboratory exercises at UB we...

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