UNAB’s Research Study Reveals Labster’s Power as a Pre-Lab Tool
Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB)
In addition to being recognized among the top five universities in Chile, Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB) serves a massive population of more than 50,000 students. Committed to advancing educational innovation, the Biology Department—led by Dr. Cristina Navarro—saw Labster’s immersive platform as an opportunity to enhance student learning.
Rather than making assumptions, though, the university's administration challenged Dr. Navarro and her team to take a more ambitious approach: conduct large-scale research.
“They asked us to go beyond doing a simple pilot and design a study to pigeonhole the best way to use Labster.”
Dr. Navarro and her cross-departmental team rose to the challenge. Working with hundreds of students and a committed group of researchers, they navigated early faculty hesitation, and what they uncovered would fundamentally reshape how virtual labs are used at UNAB.
“Truthfully, it’s a source of pride for educators like us to see the success of first-generation students who feel grateful to be at a university that is at the forefront of digitization and effective learning strategies.”
Academic Secretary, Department of Biological Sciences
UNAB’s mission to expand access to higher education results in a diverse student body.
“The opportunity we have as a pluralistic university is to enroll diverse students, level their knowledge, and then further develop their skills as they continue on their journey.”
Unlike more elite institutions in Chile, UNAB welcomes students from varied educational backgrounds and with a broad range of career aspirations, including marine biology, veterinary science, biotechnology engineering, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and medicine.
This diversity added depth to the research:
"A student who is going to be a veterinarian will see Labster from one point of view and may have a different perception than a student who majors in biochemistry. Crunching all the data from these perspectives gave us a very robust analysis, not only at the level of grades and learning outcomes but also in terms of students’ motivation, confidence, and enjoyment. “
They began gathering data on Labster usage and outcomes across different courses, learning levels, and students in the spring of 2022.
“We were looking for what worked. We assigned Labster to every student who took a Cell Biology course but tested different teaching strategies. We did an analysis of data to see which teaching strategy had better results and how Labster is best applied.”
Beyond academic performance, the team wanted to understand how students perceived the experience, so they designed and validated a survey to capture this critical dimension.
“It wasn’t hard to measure learning outcomes in our biology classes. What we didn’t know was what the students were experiencing. And that is what led us to conduct a survey of student perception, which we were careful to validate.”
When the results came in, they told a powerful story.
STUDENT SURVEY RESULTS
Across more than 350 undergraduate cell biology students:
→ More than 90% said they wanted to keep using Labster as a pre-lab assignment.
Students loved the hands-on, investigative nature of the simulations. Activities like taking DNA samples and solving medical mysteries made theory tangible and exciting.
When the research findings came in, they sparked a shift in how Labster was used across the department. The data pointed toward the fact that virtual labs were a great pre-lab tool.
“After we got those results, we changed the learning strategy. We no longer use the virtual labs as a replacement for real labs — we use them as a pre-lab to complement real labs. We also assign Labster in lecture-based courses because we found the virtual labs help students visualize the theory we teach.”
The goal became clear: give students the confidence, context, and clarity with virtual labs first.
“For our students, Labster is best used as a tool that provides the student with previous knowledge before entering the real lab or classroom. We observed that if the students did a virtual lab before they faced the lab activity, they had a better understanding of what they had to do. Many first-year students come to the University without a solid science background. They are very fearful and anxious about doing the real lab experiments. Labster has helped us with all of this.”
At first, not everyone was convinced. Faculty members were cautious about changing their teaching methods. Leadership recognized that to succeed, instructors needed to experience Labster from the student's perspective.
“At first, there was a little reluctance from the professors to change. However, we asked the faculty to use Labster themselves before making it available to their students. It was very helpful for the professor to live that experience so they can be a support. Without the professor, a student might be more likely to give up.”
This investment paid off. Faculty began actively seeking out new Labster content and integrating it more enthusiastically into their courses.
“Now that the teacher does it first, it perhaps gets them a little bit more excited when they see how they can help the students and how they can maximize Labster for themselves as well. These days, professors reach out to ask us, ‘Have any new Labsters been released? Which ones will we have this semester? How many are we going to make available? When are we going to schedule them?”
One of the most moving outcomes of the research was how much students valued the opportunity.
“To be honest, we were quite surprised by the research results. We had not thought it would motivate students so much, but no, they evaluated the Labster tool very well. We had not realized how much students appreciated the virtual labs. The feeling that they were doing real academic work with a modern digital tool motivated them a lot. We were very happy about that.”
Encouraged by the success in Cell Biology, UNAB has expanded Labster’s use into other departments, including Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Genetics. Dr. Navarro and her colleagues view this as a point of pride—not just for their department, but for the institution as a whole.
“Truthfully, it’s a source of pride for educators like us to see the success of first-generation students who feel grateful to be at a university that is at the forefront of digitization and effective learning strategies. We were one of the first to use Labster here in Chile, and we will continue.”
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