LabTutor Stars in the Nursing Lecture Theatre
In 2008, the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of East Anglia won four complete LabTutor PowerLab Systems as part of ADInstruments Europe’s LabTutor Nursing promotion. As the School develops opportunities for students to use the equipment for themselves, the educators are making sure their students are already benefiting from the Systems by using LabTutor to illustrate core science principles as part of their anatomy and physiology lecture presentations.
Bringing Lectures to Life
"We invite a volunteer from the student audience to participate in an experiment,” explains lecturer Penny Goacher.“The volunteer is ‘wired up’ during a break, and the experiment is carried out in front of groups of up to 100 students. As the data is recorded, it is projected onto a screen that all the students in the lecture theatre can see."“It’s hard for students with little practical science experience to visualize scientific principles, and without access to laboratories, it’s previously been impossible to provide our students with that kind of experience”
“Students enjoy a different approach to learning, and appreciate the opportunity to clarify their understanding of physiological principles in a life experiment. The LabTutor systems provide a golden opportunity to bring life science to life with minimal lab space requirements. The LabTutor system is compact, portable and very user friendly”.
Better Informed, More Engaged Students
The School of Nursing and Midwifery is using LabTutor with all first year students as part of the Common Foundation Programme, as well as some post-registration (post-graduate) courses. They have used LabAuthor software to adapt LabTutor experiments including Breathing, ECG and Heart Sounds, EMG and Cardiovascular Effects of Exercise to suit their curriculum and lecture theatre.Student feedback as has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments including:
“Helps to demonstrate the physiology theory in a clear and useful way” “Breaks up the lectures, helps with concentration” “Makes the lectures real and interesting” “Very informative, nice to see equipment in practice” “I enjoy the sessions when this equipment is used – it helps me to understand”
Future Roles for LabTutor
Following their initial success, the School is excited about the future possibilities for using LabTutor in their institution. “There are many opportunities for us to use LabTutor in different year groups, in other ways and in other health care programmes such as paramedics and operating department practitioners. There is much potential to be realised!”For example, the school is considering using LabTutor’s Report section to assess student’s comprehension during lectures. LabTutor Report pages can be saved as a rich text file (.rtf), with the experiment data recorded during the lecture embedded as images. This file can then be uploaded to the course’s WebCT environment, and students can complete the report using a word processing application (such as Microsoft Word) on their personal computers.
09 June 2009
