TY - CONF

T1 - Technical and didactic problems of virtual lab exercises in biochemistry and biotechnology education

AU - May, Michael

AU - Skriver, Karen

AU - Dandanell, Gert

N1 - SEFI 2013 Annual Conference, European Society for Engineering Education, 16-20 September 2013, Leuven.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - It is well-known that “cook-book exercises” in science and engineering education do not fully realize the learning objectives ascribed to them. Students do learn basic lab skills, but highly instructed exercises do not (by themselves) support theoretical understanding or appreciation of scientific methods. With web technologies we can now design exercises for remote or virtual labs, but we should not expect to improve student learning simply by recreating old didactic problems in new media. Unfortunately studies of the efficiency of different lab types (hands-on, virtual, and remote labs) suffer from a lack of conceptual analysis of what actually constitutes virtual labs. A clarification of these conceptual issues is suggested as part of a Danish research and development project on virtual lab exercises in biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology education. The main outcome of this clarification is that specific didactic problems of biochemistry education can now be addressed through the design of exercises in the virtual lab environment.

AB - It is well-known that “cook-book exercises” in science and engineering education do not fully realize the learning objectives ascribed to them. Students do learn basic lab skills, but highly instructed exercises do not (by themselves) support theoretical understanding or appreciation of scientific methods. With web technologies we can now design exercises for remote or virtual labs, but we should not expect to improve student learning simply by recreating old didactic problems in new media. Unfortunately studies of the efficiency of different lab types (hands-on, virtual, and remote labs) suffer from a lack of conceptual analysis of what actually constitutes virtual labs. A clarification of these conceptual issues is suggested as part of a Danish research and development project on virtual lab exercises in biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology education. The main outcome of this clarification is that specific didactic problems of biochemistry education can now be addressed through the design of exercises in the virtual lab environment.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Biochemistry

KW - Virtual experiments

KW - E-learning, on-site classroom learning, problem-based learning, constructivism, global issues

KW - Didactics

M3 - Paper

T2 - SEFI Annual Conference 2013

Y2 - 16 September 2013 through 20 September 2013

ER -