Dr Seth Racey is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Sciences at the University of Northumbria. He teaches Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Animal Biology at the University of St Andrew and a PhD in Genetics at the University of Leicester.

Read more about:

• What makes learning with Labster different than just watching a video
• How Northumbria uses Labster as part of its blended learning approach
• How students evaluated Labster in an end-of-term survey

Getting started with Labster

Dr Seth Racey has always been interested in e-learning and supporting the students because “they’re much more IT literate than I’ll ever be,” he said. Before discovering Labster, he used a traditional science journal supplemented with videos of mainly biological and biomedical techniques. However, it created more of “a passive YouTube-like scenario,” said Seth. “I’d find the videos to be quite useful, and then when I saw Labster and with the COVID-19 crisis, I thought, well, Labster looks much more interactive. It’s not just a sort of glorified video. It’s a lot more than that,” followed Dr Racey.

Number of students: 1000 students, 30 modules using Labster such as biomedicine, biochemistry, biology, sports, chemistry, physiology — mostly undergraduate courses.

Simulations used: All simulations.

Labster as a supplement in the blended learning approach

Even though Labster served as a direct wet lab replacement for biomedical and biotechnology students learning at a distance, “we will be using it much more as a supplement. We want to make sure that the students are coming into the labs and make those sessions count,” said Dr Seth Racey.

With its simulations, lab manuals and library of science images, Labster supports a blended learning environment. Concepts that would typically be difficult to present online are part of Labster simulations. “Post-COVID, we will probably transition to a much more blended offering rather than an offering that’s mainly didactic. Particularly, there’s a lot of biology content that normally isn’t easy to do online. But now Labster really helps with a large chunk of that,” explained Dr Racey.

Labster as a pre-lab exercise

Seth incorporates Labster in his teaching, where he shows a simulation as a pre-lab before the wet lab session. This way, the students are well-prepared for the lab and can be more efficient in face-to-face teaching. “For instance, I’ll use Labster for the enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay teaching. I’ll support those sessions with a virtual lab because there’s a good assay simulation in Labster. I’ll ask the students to do that before the lab so that they get a lot more out of the lab,” explained Dr Racey.

Dr Racey can see this significant shift to blended learning across the entire university, “certainly, the university seems to have become a lot more amenable to blended learning,” said Seth. More than 30 modules are currently using Labster at the University of Northumbria. “It’s really great to see that Labster has been adopted so widely across the sciences at our university,” added Dr Seth Racey.

“If you have to replace a practical, Labster is great. I want to teach a number of techniques that you just cannot get 150 students to do. I can organise an assay for 150 students. It’s hard, but I can do it. But I can’t get 150 students to do mass spec or some sort of column chromatography. You have one or two of those devices in the whole university, and you can’t get 150 people to sit in front of it. It just doesn’t scale. So having the ability to do a simulation of, say, mass spec or fluorescent microscopy is great.”— Dr Seth Racey, University of Northumbria.

Student feedback and grades

Regarding the student feedback, “when you look at the responses from the students in a survey we did at the end of the semester, Labster was mentioned four or five times in the What went well column. It’s really good that the students saw the experience with Labster as a positive,” explained Dr Racey.

As the lockdown situation with the shift to remote learning presented its own set of challenges, “you would expect to see a real slide in performance. And we haven’t seen that despite the fact that the students haven’t been in the labs and haven’t been getting that face-to-face experience. Grades are probably about steady-state with how they were pre-COVID,” explained Seth. Keeping the students engaged has been one of the main challenges. “I think what Labster offers has significantly supported the students and meant that they haven’t just tanked. Once a student disengages from a course, there’s not much you can do to prevent them from failing that course,” said Dr Seth Racey.

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