Strategies for delivering science laboratory teaching in a fully online mode during COVID
Dr Gee Chong Ling, Dr Si Hui( Tammy) Tang School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science
Due to the circumstances that arose with the development of a global pandemic, the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences was forced to deliver laboratory teaching using a fully online model( which ironically included lessons on the propagation of viruses). To maintain a high-quality student learning experience, the technical teaching professionals worked collaboratively with academics to develop new online teaching resources and effective engagement strategies in the online environment.
To provide students with an opportunity to experience the real laboratory environment, a 3D model of the laboratory was generated to create a virtual lesson that facilitated health and safety training via an immersive experience( Hernández-de-Menéndez, M., et al., 2019; Pirker J., et al 2020). The students’ learning was further supported through carefully designed instructional videos on how to perform scientific techniques in the disciplines of Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and others. Many other laboratory materials were also digitised to inspire and nurture students’ critical thinking in the relevant disciplines. The above strategies offered sustainable solutions to both our immediate and future teaching needs. These new interactive resources offer a novel and flexible platform for the remote self-directed exploration of scientific laboratory environments and practices.
In addition to the development of the above teaching resources, a variety of student engagement strategies were employed to create a more dynamic learning environment during the online laboratory teaching sessions. For example, the facilitation of at-home scientific experimentation empowered students to conduct authentic experiments and then analyse their findings with their online peer learning group( Smith, S., & Hewston, R., 2020). In a different approach, students were encouraged to record their laboratory observations and outcomes using an electronic laboratory notebook instead of a traditional printed manual. This helped students to develop good documentation practices- an essential attribute for science graduates- and provided a valuable collaboration space for them to engage with their peers and demonstrators. The students’ involvement in the online sessions was also enhanced by participatory design strategies that employed polling and Q & A tools such as Polly( MS Teams), Zeetings, Slido, Jamboard( Google) and others.
We found that the newly developed online teaching resources and strategies offer great flexibility and functionality in supporting student learning. The high quality of the overall learning experience has been widely acknowledged and appreciated by the students, with feedback describing the resources as being insightful and the online class activities as highly engaging and enjoyable.
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