International educators’ attitudes, experiences, and recommendations after an abrupt transition to remote physiology laboratories

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered university lockdowns, forcing physiology educators to rapidly pivot laboratories into a remote delivery format. This study documents the experiences of an international group of 10 physiology educators surrounding this transition. They wrote reflective narratives, framed by guiding questions, to answer the research question: “What were the changes to physiology laboratories in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?” These narratives probed educators’ attitudes toward virtual laboratories before, during, and after the transition to remote delivery. Thematic analysis of the reflections found that before COVID-19 only a few respondents had utilized virtual laboratories and most felt that virtual laboratories could not replace the in-person laboratory experience. In response to university lockdowns, most respondents transitioned from traditional labs to remote formats within a week or less. The most common remote delivery formats were commercially available online physiology laboratories, homemade videos, and sample experimental data. The main challenges associated with the rapid remote transition included workload and expertise constraints, disparities in online access and workspaces, issues with academic integrity, educator and student stress, changes in learning outcomes, and reduced engagement. However, the experience generated opportunities including exploration of unfamiliar technologies, new collaborations, and revisiting the physiology laboratory curriculum and structure. Most of the respondents reported planning on retaining some aspects of the remote laboratories postpandemic, particularly with a blended model of remote and on-campus laboratories. This study concludes with recommendations for physiology educators as to how they can successfully develop and deliver remote laboratories.

All-digital training course in neurophysiology: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…While many universities restricted their online physiology courses to educational videos and case studies [ 15 , 18 , 19 ], we simulated the complete laboratory environment. From this point of view, our study complements a recent international study, describing the use of similar approaches and virtual tools, and providing educators’ views on the transition to remote physiology laboratories [ 20 ]. Ten educators from Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.A. [ 20 ] and 146 students from Germany (our study) agree that virtual laboratories are a good supplement, but not a replacement for the on-campus laboratories; appreciate the value of the asynchronous PreLabs as well as difficulties to transfer skills around teamwork (collaboration and cooperation with others, valuing different views and communicating effectively) and the physiology-related professional skills.…”

“…Other issues, addressed by our students and also noticed by other educators teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic using remote platforms, are the need to create organization and structure to support learning and the importance of the learner’s engagement [ 10 , 20 , 24 , 25 ]. In contrast to traditional face-to-face teaching, where information mostly flows from the teacher to the students, the online formats are more student-centric.…”

Virtual delivery: a panacea for the financial and ethical challenges associated with physiology laboratory classes?

“…Others in our group took a more home-grown approach, developing videos of laboratory procedures or adopting resources that had been developed within their own or other institutions, e.g., Experiments-Monash Physiology (https://ilearn.med.monash.edu.au/ physiology/experiments.html). In all cases, the virtual resources were used in conjunction with our learning management systems and video conferencing software, allowing us to deliver course materials synchronously and/or asynchronously (1).…”

“…We focus on the financial and ethical challenges and in doing so address technological and educational opportunities and constraints of both virtual and in-person approaches to the delivery of laboratory classes. Our views stem from our reflections analyzed for the article by Choate et al (1) and our ensuing discussions.…”

“…Here, we, a group of physiology educators who previously shared our experiences of rapidly transitioning our on-campus in-person laboratory classes to remote virtual learning (1), argue that this is an opportune time for course coordinators to review their physiology course learning outcomes and then decide how best to meet them. We focus on the financial and ethical challenges and in doing so address technological and educational opportunities and constraints of both virtual and in-person approaches to the delivery of laboratory classes.…”