Interview

How did evaluating Labster’s impact support UNAB’s mission to serve a diverse student population?

“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. 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.” 

What were you looking for in the data that would help UNAB enhance its teaching strategy and maximize Labster usage across the department? 

“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.”

Did the data uncover a clear goal for how to use Labster going forward? 

“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.”

Did you face any challenges with implementing these findings and how did you overcome them? 

“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. 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.”

What was the most surprising discovery from this study? 

“To be honest, we were quite surprised by the research results….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.”

What does it mean to you, as an educator, to see your first-generation students succeed in a university that embraces innovative digital learning tools like Labster?

“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.”

Read the full research study