by Tula Verhalle, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Since the Corona virus pandemic, the importance of the use of video material in an educational context has gained interest. The pandemic lockdown forced us to develop alternative solutions to our WETLAB practical workshops which were cancelled. While our efforts have been appreciated by the students, a number of shortcomings became apparent. One key aspect was a lack of interactivity in the digital material we have created. Such features maximize remote preparation of students and improve their learning. Furthermore, not every university has access to a well-equipped biomedical laboratory so we wanted to encourage experimental thinking for students without lab access.
Learning new techniques and different manipulations is also very time and labor intensive. By demystifying practical manipulations, we wanted to encourage active participation during our practical sessions, taking place already in the post-pandemic era. In order to explore virtual learning strategies deeper, we established an international VIBES network that focused on innovating teaching instruments. Within that network we developed new visual tools to supplement or substitute for some aspects of the hands-on workshops in developmental and molecular biology. An added value of the VIBES network is to provide learning tools in the context of the continuously increasing number of students and the costs of their education.
The VIBES project was born in February 2022 and includes 5 different partners: (1) The Medical University of Lublin, Poland; (2) The KU Leuven, Belgium; (3) The University of Foggia, Italy; (4) The University of Oslo, Norway and (5) the University of Reykjavik, Iceland. In this Erasmus + project the knowledge and power of those universities is combined to ensure a high quality end product.
The key objective of this project is the development of a platform that can, in these educationally unstable times, provide students and teaching professionals with tools to maintain the high standards of the practical training. It is in line with the objectives set by the European Commission in the Education and Training Program. Specifically, VIBES contributes to the establishment of innovative European educational and scientific partnerships to design and implement students’ training with the use of high-quality standardised materials necessary for the creation of sustainable educational models embedded within curricula.
The aims of this project are:
1. address the common needs and priorities in the field of biomedical education resulting from limited access to laboratory infrastructure/equipment and teacher/peer-based institutional methods
2. enable transformation and curricular changes by creation of an innovative online laboratory practice in biotechnology/ bioscience lab techniques
3. promote knowledge transfer to a digitally enhanced scientific approach
4. allow learners to develop skills for professional decision-making and scientific operational autonomy
5. enhance the quality in biomedical laboratory science education and practice
6. increase the capacity of cooperating participants to operate jointly at transnational level
7. open biomedical laboratory science to external learners and potential stakeholders
The virtual lab training for biomedical science students consists of training videos, captured in the first person point of view, in which an expert is performing different biomedical techniques. VIBES will provide 30 different modules. The teams of Lublin and Oslo focus on zebrafish model organism in biomedical research while Reykjavik and Foggia in stem cells and protein detection methods. The KU Leuven team focuses on developmental biology using different model organisms used in biomedical research such as chicken and mice embryos. Speechelo was chosen to generate voiceovers in all of our videos, a mix of male and female voices is being used. The interactive movies do have English subtitles. In the full version movies without interactivity, subtitles in other languages are possible too.
The VIBES project also encourages active thinking and stimulates brainstorming and provides self-assessment interactive tools. To help both teachers and their students, the movies will be accompanied by additional features like an international glossary of biomedical terms, student protocols and teacher’s guides.
We are very proud and honored to have got the chance of presenting the VIBES project at the Media & Learning Conference 2024 in Leuven.
As part of our activities, an educational conference will be held from the 15th till the 17th of January in Lublin, Poland. It gives us the opportunity to disseminate the end product, to enlarge our educational network and to learn from each other. We would like to invite you to participate and get inspired by our keynote speakers. For the actual program and more details regarding the conference, please take a look at our website: Home (vibes-edu.eu). Registrations will be open soon.
We hope to stay in touch and welcome you in Lublin,
The VIBES-team.
Author
Tula Verhalle, KU Leuven, Belgium
