LT grant project “wrap-up”… what “wrap-up”? It feels like there are still some loose ends to call it a “wrap-up”… Yet, the grant period is over, and I must reflect on the progress of past year and look to the future!
Despite some setbacks, there has been much progress and positive impact in teaching and learning as the result of the products created through the LT grant. The most significant deliverable created with the support from the LT grant team was the Virtual Histology Laboratory (http://histology.osumc.edu) which, since its launch in September 2011, has been accessed by 2,879 visitors as of 1/12/12 and appears as one of the top 10 items on the Google search engine with key words: virtual histology lab.
The virtual laboratory is new to the Ohio State University, and especially for medical and dental students, it will make a large impact in the way Histology courses are taught. Until now, there was little-to-no laboratory component for Histology courses for medical and dental students. This was a huge deficiency as Histology is a visual subject that requires students to learn pattern recognition skills critical for identification of organs or disease processes.
Since its launch, the virtual laboratory has been used in medical and dental integrated basic science curriculum, as well as in the graduate Histology course. The impact of its use in class is huge for students and instructors – for one, instructors can actually walk students through the slides to orient the tissues for them, then identify structures or cells as they interact with the virtual slide while keeping the orientation and context of the big picture — a difficult task with static images. Students then have the opportunity to interact with the virtual slides on their own, anywhere, anyplace to gain pattern recognition skills. The preliminary survey of the dental class on the virtual lab use, both in class and on their own, has been overwhelmingly positive. Quantitative analysis of students’ course performance before and after the virtual lab implementation is ongoing, and it is hoped the study results will be submitted to an educational journal for peer-reviewed publication.
In an effort to create a stand-alone histology course, as a part of the LT grant project, we performed focus group and interview studies on students’ expectations for an online Histology course. In this study, we explored students’ perception of the usability of the current course management software, Carmen, and their preferred layout and resource types for an online course for Histology. The results of this study are currently being drafted as a manuscript we hope to submit for peer-reviewed publication by the end of February.
Lastly, we performed a small pilot study on the educational value of an online Histology lecture module as a blended learning tool in a dental Histology course. Preliminary survey data on its utility and educational value are positive. We plan on expanding this study in the coming months as more lecture modules are completed.
Moving forward, we plan to complete the online Histology course and pilot test it in Spring 2012. We are already getting a fair amount of inquiries from students who are interested in taking this course.
Though this is a “wrap-up”, I feel that this is only the beginning… in fact, I consider the entire past year, working with LT team as a huge kick-off. Now that we are equipped with abundant knowledge, tools, and resources thanks to the LT team, we are ready to forge ahead and make education more efficient, accessible, and long-lasting through the use of technology.
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Anatomy (Histology) 2011 Impact Grant Reflections
LT grant project “wrap-up”… what “wrap-up”? It feels like there are still some loose ends to call it a “wrap-up”… Yet, the grant period is over, and I must reflect on the progress of past year and look to the future!
Despite some setbacks, there has been much progress and positive impact in teaching and learning as the result of the products created through the LT grant. The most significant deliverable created with the support from the LT grant team was the Virtual Histology Laboratory (http://histology.osumc.edu) which, since its launch in September 2011, has been accessed by 2,879 visitors as of 1/12/12 and appears as one of the top 10 items on the Google search engine with key words: virtual histology lab.
The virtual laboratory is new to the Ohio State University, and especially for medical and dental students, it will make a large impact in the way Histology courses are taught. Until now, there was little-to-no laboratory component for Histology courses for medical and dental students. This was a huge deficiency as Histology is a visual subject that requires students to learn pattern recognition skills critical for identification of organs or disease processes.
Since its launch, the virtual laboratory has been used in medical and dental integrated basic science curriculum, as well as in the graduate Histology course. The impact of its use in class is huge for students and instructors – for one, instructors can actually walk students through the slides to orient the tissues for them, then identify structures or cells as they interact with the virtual slide while keeping the orientation and context of the big picture — a difficult task with static images. Students then have the opportunity to interact with the virtual slides on their own, anywhere, anyplace to gain pattern recognition skills. The preliminary survey of the dental class on the virtual lab use, both in class and on their own, has been overwhelmingly positive. Quantitative analysis of students’ course performance before and after the virtual lab implementation is ongoing, and it is hoped the study results will be submitted to an educational journal for peer-reviewed publication.
In an effort to create a stand-alone histology course, as a part of the LT grant project, we performed focus group and interview studies on students’ expectations for an online Histology course. In this study, we explored students’ perception of the usability of the current course management software, Carmen, and their preferred layout and resource types for an online course for Histology. The results of this study are currently being drafted as a manuscript we hope to submit for peer-reviewed publication by the end of February.
Lastly, we performed a small pilot study on the educational value of an online Histology lecture module as a blended learning tool in a dental Histology course. Preliminary survey data on its utility and educational value are positive. We plan on expanding this study in the coming months as more lecture modules are completed.
Moving forward, we plan to complete the online Histology course and pilot test it in Spring 2012. We are already getting a fair amount of inquiries from students who are interested in taking this course.
Though this is a “wrap-up”, I feel that this is only the beginning… in fact, I consider the entire past year, working with LT team as a huge kick-off. Now that we are equipped with abundant knowledge, tools, and resources thanks to the LT team, we are ready to forge ahead and make education more efficient, accessible, and long-lasting through the use of technology.