Wendy Riggs provides insight into her virtual Anatomy and Physiology Labs at College of the Redwoods and discusses how she uses technology to facilitate meaningful learning opportunities for her students.
Wendy begins the webinar highlighting the importance of laboratory-based courses, as they encourage students to do science; according to the National Science Foundation "appreciating the scientific process can be even more important than knowing scientific facts". She also points out that labs allow students the opportunity to work together and so they can discover ideas, both together and individually.
". . . this is different from applying content that they've learned somewhere else . . . [not just] read the text and now we're going to apply it . . . this is discovering ideas . . . this is an inquiry-based approach that is harder for us to do."
In addition, labs allow students to apply course concepts using hands-on experiences and these activities should be both fun and engaging. However, the important question remains whether these objectives can be achieved online.
Due to COVID-19, there has been a pivot to remote teaching, and the 2020 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) 5 and 2021 CHLOE 6 Reports have revealed how institutions and teachers are shifting focus to tech enhancements for the classroom. Wendy then discusses barriers that need to be overcome for online classes, including: students becoming bored, canned content, harder to help students, lack of equipment, and technology issues.
". . . for us AND the students, doing this work online is just . . . a tremendous amount of work."
Wendy continues the webinar discussingproaches to overcome these obstacles. Virtual simulations hosted on web platforms, lab activities via worksheets, and wetlabs that involve student preparation or science kits are a few solutions that have been widely implemented. LT sensors from ADInstruments are introduced as a hands-on and interactive solution; these sensors measure human physiological data and allow students to collect and analyze the data themselves.
"I look forward to investing . . . you can't make changes unless you invest time and energy into teaching the students about the thing you want them to be able to do."
The pros and cons of the LT sensors are presented. Although it is another online platform, this technology allows students to collaborate in real time; for example, one student can be connected to the LT sensor at home but the rest of the class can observe and work simultaneously with the data.
Wendy concludes the webinar with some advice for other educators: evaluate why you are asking them to do the work, think carefully about the variety of content, and consider the quantity of content. Finally, she recommends investing in the creation of a sense of community in class.
Webinar Highlights
- Review of the important outcomes of laboratory experiences
- Common barriers to hands-on laboratory experiences and online science courses
- Pros and cons of common online laboratory solutions
Presenters
Wendy Riggs
Wendy Riggs is an Associate Professor of Biology at College of the Redwoods in northern California. She has a strong background in online education and uses technology to facilitate meaningful learning opportunities for her students. She served as the President of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) in 2020-21.
Sponsor
ADInstruments
Content Partners
Human Anatomy & Physiology Society
GOALS:
- To enhance the quality of human anatomy and physiology instruction at colleges, universities, and related institutions.
- To promote and facilitate communication and collaboration among teachers of human anatomy and physiology.
- To encourage innovation, educational research, and publication by human anatomy and physiology teachers.
- To promote and organize professional development programs for the teaching of human anatomy and physiology.
- To promote interaction among science teachers at all educational levels.
- To provide the membership with opportunities to become and remain informed about the latest developments in the health/science field.
- To facilitate communication with other sectors of the educational and scientific community and to collect and disseminate to the membership information regarding events of interest.
- To foster a sense of collegiality and camaraderie among members.
Some of the members-only resources include:
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A discussion group that has evolved from the legendary HAPS listserv (HAPS-L) that has the most interesting conversations in A&P. Have a question? Chances are that it will be answered within hours. Have a really hard question? Chances are it will get 20 replies by the end of the day. Many of the top authors in A&P are active participants, as are many of the top instructors in the country.
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An inclusive leadership that promotes member participation and growth. You don't have to be a HAPS member for decades to join committees and move into leadership positions.
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Immediate access to new editions of the peer-reviewed HAPS-EDucator, which is published online three times per year. Articles cover various topics important to A&P instructors.
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Online access to Anatomical Sciences Education (ASE), a Medline-indexed journal that publishes articles related to all levels of anatomical sciences education including undergraduate, allied health, medical (both allopathic and osteopathic), dental, graduate and post-graduate programs, and covers the major disciplines of the anatomical sciences
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Reduced tuition for HAPS Institute (HAPS-I) courses. Courses can either earn graduate-level credit or professional development certificates. Courses are primarily all online and offer flexibility for busy professional instructors to fit the courses into their schedules. Take a look at the currently available courses here
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Access to a huge array of nationally respected teaching resources. Take a look here.
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A set of comprehensive safety guidelines that is continually updated.
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A growing catalog of guided inquiry activities for teaching A&P for members only.
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A members-only data sharing program to provide a large, curated dataset for teaching labs and classroom analysis.
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Comprehensive catalog Learning Outcomes available to members
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Access to the Histology Challenge - biweekly histology slides and discussion. Nearly 100 previous challenges available - many use these to sharpen their own skills and also for student assignments.
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Grants and scholarships for travel and research available to members only. We want you to join and come to conferences, and we help those in our community who need help to make it happen.
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Cadaver lab tours and lab reconstruction advice (both in webpages and from HAPS members if you ask...)
HAPS also works to make teaching better with:
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Extensive work on clarifying faculty accreditation issues, including a set of tools for faculty and institutions to use to help clarify instructor qualifications.
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Nationally respected Position Statements on Animal Use, Cadaver Use, and Distance Education. Take a look all of them here.
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More than a decade of work producing the HAPS Comprehensive Exam. A fully online exam used both in the US and Internationally to characterize Instructors, Programs, and individual students.
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Updated Learning Goals for Undergraduate instruction in all content areas in anatomy and physiology
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A weekly curated set of links relevant news for 9 interest areas of A&P instruction known as Whats New in A&P that is used in classrooms across the country.
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An active social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (see the links in the upper right corner of this page) to keep in touch with members and the wider community.
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Check out HAPSblog for longer term discussions like Erin's year teaching A&P in a Houston high school or Wendy's amazing series on flipping her classroom one week at a time.
