News & Events
January 21, 2004
UBC Students in Vancouver Use Science Lab South of the Border in Online Experiment
By Krista Charbonneau, Editor, e-Strategy Update Newsletter
Last term, a group of UBC pharmacy instructors and students took part in a unique pilot project, where they conducted an in-class science experiment from Vancouver, using the Internet to access and operate instruments in a lab at Western Washington University (WWU). UBC is the first university to work with WWU and use their Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN).
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"As a teaching tool … it’s a completely different approach. Students have ownership of their work. The potential for engaging students is substantial.”
— Simon Albon, Senior Instructor, Pharmacy, UBC |
Western Washington’s ILN combines laboratory, computer, and instructional technology, connected through high-speed networks. It allows people to virtually access a university laboratory, instruments, and expertise, any time and from any place.
Using the ILN as a teaching tool gives students a chance to do what real researchers do, increases access to equipment they might not have otherwise, and allows them to take ownership of their learning process.
“As a teaching tool, the concept of an ILN could revolutionize what we do,” said Simon Albon, a senior instructor in pharmacy at UBC, who led the pilot project. “This was a unique experience and an opportunity that no one else at UBC has had, and is unique to Canadian Pharmacy schools.”
The Pilot Project - How They Did it
The pilot project took place in Albon’s Introduction to Pharmaceutical Analysis course, Pharmacy 325, during the last week of classes in November. In the course, third-year students learn about scientific techniques used to analyze drugs and drug products to ensure the safe and effective use of the products in the healthcare system. They attend both lectures and labs.
During the pilot project experiment, the students learned about a technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS). It’s a fairly common technique, but the UBC Pharmacy Faculty doesn’t have access to the necessary GCMS laboratory equipment to run the experiment in the student laboratory. However, Western Washington University does.
Enter Devon Cancilla, the Director of Scientific Technical Services and Associate Professor at Huxley College of the Environment at WWU. Cancilla, who runs the ILN, prepares the instruments and provides expertise in the lab at WWU. Albon collaborated with Cancilla, as well as UBC pharmacy professors, Keith McErlane and Wayne Riggs, the Faculty of Education and Samia Khan, and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who provided expertise in pedagogy, evaluation and technology.
Before the lecture, the team prepared a case study to focus the group discussions during classtime. Albon sent the samples to be used in the experiment to Cancilla, who set up the samples on the GCMS equipment at WWU.
On the day of the lecture, Albon gave the students a demonstration of the instrument at WWU, from the lecture hall in Vancouver, and ran the samples during the lecture.
Using two-way voice, a Web cam, and Net Meeting software to connect the computers at the two sites, Albon, McErlane and Riggs and the students used real data to generate the experimental data needed to “solve” the case.
Encouraging Students to Take Ownership in Their Work Increases the Potential for Engagement
Using this kind of technology in the classroom means that instructors and students are introduced to a whole new way of teaching and learning about science.
“It’s a completely different approach,” said Albon. “Students have ownership of their work. If they collect their own samples, they have ownership from the start. The potential for engaging students is substantial.”
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"Access is one thing, and we’ve overcome that hurdle. The world is open – now what do we do with it?
— Devon Cancilla, Director of Scientific Technical Services, Western Washington University |
Giving students the opportunity to take ownership and engage in the work helps them see the relevance of what they’re learning.
“Struggling for relevance is crucial in courses like this, we have to struggle to make that happen,” said Albon. “This is a course in basic science for pharmacists, and students often wonder, ‘Why do I need this?’
"The students need the background information to have an appreciation of the behind the scenes work of this discipline and it’s impact on pharmacy. Teaching techniques that help the students take ownership of their experiments and work in the classroom helps engage them.”
Actual Labs Aren’t Necessarily Better Than Virtual Labs if Students Can’t Access Them
Some may argue that using a virtual laboratory doesn’t hold a candle to using real instruments. But the reality is that universities don’t always own a full suite of all the instruments needed for experiment.
"The ILN gives students exposure to equipment they wouldn’t normally have access to," said Albon.
If a university does have the necessary equipment, there are often time and resource constraints in the way teaching labs are set up. Often, instruments sit unused in the labs. Students have limited access to the lab and usually only get to run an experiment once, whereas real scientists run experiments multiple times.
“A teaching lab in a university is usually only about three hours,” said Devon Cancilla. “Students usually have to line up to use the instrument – it’s like a bottleneck process. There is no iterative process in the way these labs are taught. It’s often like trying to push cattle through a yard instead of giving them a sense of how real science works.”
A chance for Students to do real research and be part of a 'fantastic opportunity'
Albon started collaborating with Cancilla in April 2003. But the connection was first made two years ago, when Michelle Lamberson, UBC’s Director of Learning Technology, saw Cancilla give a presentation at a teaching and learning conference in Jacksonville, Florida.
Lamberson was working with WebCT at the time, but was so impressed, she started looking for opportunities to work with Cancilla almost right away.
It finally happened after she arrived at UBC in August 2002, to head up the UBC's new Office of Learning Technology.
“When you see what is made possible with the ILN, you realize that in essence, this is what technology and our world-class network is for,” she said. “Students not only see how scientific research is done in the "real world", it allows them to do what researchers do.
"They have an opportunity to be part of an international collaboration, they take ownership of their own research, their own learning – there’s so many pieces of this project that align with UBC's vision for student learning, that it's phenomenal. It's a fantastic opportunity for UBC.”
The fruitful collaboration between UBC and WWU is creating opportunities to share resources that ultimately benefit students on both sides of the border.
“UBC is currently in the process of upgrading instruments to accommodate all the students we have,” said Albon. “But one of the concepts is that we don’t have to spend money on certain pieces of equipment if someone else has that instrument. And, UBC could buy equipment that builds on another university’s suite of instruments.”
New Ways of Working in the Classroom for instructors and students
New learning technologies that introduce radically new ways of doing things in the classroom means that both students and instructors have some adjustments to make, and challenges almost always accompany the benefits.
Running experiments during lecture time means there’s a waiting time for the experiment to process. This changes the structure and timing and the way the instructor delivers the course material to students.
“There’s a more dynamic delivery of course material, it’s not just a straight lecture anymore and some students weren’t used to that,” said Albon. “We are figuring out how to make it an effective in-class technique and how to make the waiting time for the experiment fit the lecture environment.”
Since the experiment is running at the same time as the lecture, instructors need to adapt to a different style of presentation.
“It’s more interactive,” said Cancilla. “While you’re waiting for samples to run, the class can discuss other issues, and then go back and work with the experiment and the samples when it’s ready.”
Access Doesn’t Guarantee Use, And Changing Attitudes is Something Else Entirely
It’s still very early days for using the ILN technology with teaching, but Albon and Cancilla will have a chance to refine some of these issues in September. They will integrate the ILN more fully in a course with a small group of fourth year students in the fall.
This time, they’ll run experiments over two weeks, and use the ILN for some experiments and use real instrumentation for others.
But changing the culture and attitude towards technology and teaching will be one of their biggest challenges.
“Access is one thing, and we’ve overcome that hurdle,” said Cancilla. “The world is open - now, what do we do with it? Access doesn’t guarantee use, even if it might be really great access. We’re changing the conception of science and what we do with it.”
More Information
Contact: Simon Albon, Devon Cancilla
Watch a presentation about the ILN, by Devon Cancilla, given at UBC in October, 2003.
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