The College of Medicine and Public Health Vice-President and Executive Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award is designed to recognise and reward teaching excellence and innovation and to encourage and prepare staff in their applications for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
We are delighted to announce Dr Elke Sokoya as this year’s recipient, for her role in the development of hybrid practicals via a virtual microscopy platform, offering students increased flexibility, equity of experience and enhanced learning.
Dr Sokoya’s achievement will be celebrated at our end of year awards ceremony in December.
With the covid-19 pandemic on our shores, Elke knew she was about to be presented with challenges that involved her topic the building blocks of the human body (MMED1007). The first being that face-to-face practicals could not proceed due to the physical distancing mandate and secondly online practicals could not be delivered as the teaching glass slide sets were not digitised.
In response to these challenges, Elke considered whether open access virtual microscopy images were available and could potentially replace the teaching glass slide sets, while there were a number of paid subscription platforms, open access sites were limited. However, sites from the likes of the University of Michigan medical school, the University of British Columbia, the Virtual Microscopy Database powered by Biolucida and Blue Histology from the University of Western Australia provided excellent images. Side-by-side comparison of the open access virtual microscopy images with the glass teaching slides revealed that the majority of images were comparable or superior to those in the teaching glass slide sets.
Elke then sought to determine whether virtual microscopy is comparable to face-to-face practicals with regards to student learning performance, which proceeded to a review of the literature being conducted. The majority of evidence indicated that, while there are strengths and limitations, the use of virtual microscopy appears to improve student performance and engagement [1-3]. Therefore, based on the literature and the available resources, a decision was made in 2020 to replace face-to-face practicals with online practical classes via Collaborate where students viewed open access virtual microscopy images.
Online teaching sessions are prone to disengagement and passive learning. Therefore, to counter this, the lecturer was asked to use the Collaborate interface to point out features on the slide in real-time. Students were then given time to open the specific virtual microscopy image and find these features. The Collaborate platform enabled students to share their image via the Share Screen portal and ask for clarification. Quizzes were adapted to Collaborate, by sharing images and questions, and enabling students to enter their answers via FLO. A number of strengths were realised from using the open access virtual microscopy images including standardised learning content by providing identical copies of images, the ability to zoom in at higher magnification than with an optical microscope, improved accessibility to practicals in real-time and ongoing access to images as a revision tool. The limitations of using digitised images include underdeveloped microscope handling skills and the possibility of inferior image resolution compared to images visualised with optical microscopy. In regard to the latter, Elke notes it is important to carefully select the open access images, as all sources are not appropriate.
As with any educational innovation, Elke recognised that it was important to acquire student feedback. In the 2020 SET responses (7/29; 24% response rate), 71% of students were in broad agreement that overall, they had a worthwhile learning experience. Students reported that “The practicals definitely helped with the visualisation of each structure and reinstated the main components of the lecture material” and “I enjoyed the online learning experience”. In terms of better supporting their learning, student feedback was “Being able to physically use microscopes would help to build the skills of setting up microscopes.” In addition to positive student feedback, the assessment data supported an improvement in student learning as a result of the change in the approach to practicals. The mean practical quiz mark (normalised to year 1 GPA) was 3.2±0.2 (2019) and 3.7±0.2 (2020) and the mean overall topic mark was 9.3±0.6 (2019) and 10.7±0.7 (2020).
Whilst the dependence on open access virtual microscopy images was successful in their first year of use, Elke recognised that this was not a long-term solution because there was no guarantee that free access would remain in place. Indeed, the University of Western Australia’s Blue Histology free online site has been discontinued and access to the images is now via paid subscription. However, given the superior quality of many of these images, the open access platform could still offer an excellent supporting learning resource. As face-to-face teaching resumed in 2021, some students would have access to both the teaching glass slide sets and the open access virtual microscopy images, while some students would only have access to the latter, thereby providing an unequitable learning experience. To resolve this issue, Elke digitally scanned the teaching glass slide sets using the Olympus VS200 slide scanner located in Flinders Microscopy and Microanalysis. Unfortunately two new problems were encountered. First, the free OlyVIA software to view the vsi files can only be downloaded using the Windows operating system. Second, FLO does not have the capacity to save the large metafiles. One potential solution was to use the Biolucida database platform and software, however following discussions with their product management specialist, unfortunately it was determined that this was not a viable option due to ongoing fees. In search of finding a solution, Elke reached out to Dr Eleanor Peirce, the histology coordinator at the University of Adelaide. They had digitised their in-house microscopy slides using Nanozoomer software a number of years ago. Software is free to download on both the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems but unfortunately this was not a viable option since our OlyVIA images are not compatible with Nanozoomer software. This prompted a series of conversations with the Flinders IDS team who were keen to work with Elke in order to test a different solution. The vsi files were uploaded to a newly created Teaching Drive and the OlyVIA software was embedded into the University’s VirtualApps platform (accessed via Okta), allowing students to run the software via the University’s data centres, rather than installing and running the software on their personal computer.
Access to the digitised teaching glass sets was introduced for the first time in 2021. This provided equity for students who were able to attend the face-to-face practicals and those who were online. It also provided an excellent revision tool that enabled students to view the images at any time – either during the practical or before the end-of-semester exam. In the 2021 SET responses (10/49; 20% response rate), 100% of students were in broad agreement that overall, they had a worthwhile learning experience. Regarding what helped students learn the most, students reported “the practicals,100%”, “the practicals and virtual slides to view before attending the practicals” and “the interactive slides…. I wished I discovered them sooner in the topic.” The mean practical quiz mark (normalised to year 1 GPA) was 3.5±0.2 and the mean overall topic mark was 11.6±0.6. These findings align with those in the literature showing a positive impact of virtual microscopy on student learning and academic performance [4-7]. Having standardised the microscopy images for students on campus and offshore, Elke then turned to addressing the lack of access to microscopes. To address this unmet need, Elke created a video on How to Use a Microscope that serves as a proxy for handling microscopes in the MTF. The video was incorporated into the MMED1007 learning resources module in 2021 and fulfilled a number of important purposes. Firstly, it provided an educational resource for students in preparation to entering the MTF. By watching a video, students can visualise the operation of a microscope, rather than relying on still images and labelled diagrams. Secondly, it effectively puts a microscope in the hands of every student, including offshore students, who do not have access to a microscope. Thirdly, it provided another revision tool to help solidify understanding.
In summary, COVID-19 provided the impetus to develop hybrid histology practicals that have significantly improved student learning, as evidenced by student-reported outcomes and enhanced academic achievement. The face-to-face practicals, in combination with an online video on How to Use a Microscope, unrestricted access to the digitised teaching glass sets, and links to carefully selected open access virtual microscopy images, together offers a more rich and flexible learning environment, that promotes self-directed learning alongside greater equity between onshore and offshore students. It is particularly tailored for students with different learning styles, including those with a disability access plan or NESB status. Through creative curriculum design, this project has delivered a unique and holistic approach to learning histology, by offering students increased flexibility, equity of experience and enhanced learning.
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