The Digital Microscope: A Tool for Teaching Laboratory Skills in Distance Learning Courses

The majority of undergraduate students studying for a science degree will at some point carry out experiments in a laboratory setting, thus developing their practical skills and understanding of experimental principles. For distance learning students, there is no laboratory setting available for them to complete such work and as such there is a risk that they will lack these key skills. The Open University has developed a computerized tool, in the form of a Digital Microscope, to allow students to collect data to investigate the effects of drugs of abuse on different regions of the rat brain. Small groups of students were set a specific hypothesis to investigate, in this instance students were looking at the differential effects of cocaine and amphetamine on the caudate putamen. Using the microscope students counted the number of Fos positive cells in the caudate putamen to contribute to a group data set. Tutors collated the data from all students in the group and returned the full set to them for analysis and interpretation. In order to evaluate the Digital Microscope we compared student data with data collected by a tutor on the course and obtained feedback questionnaires from students and tutors. We found that while student counts were substantially higher than those made by a tutor, the relationships between experimental groups were preserved. Furthermore, the majority of students and tutors felt that using the microscope had provided useful experience of a number of key practical skills including obtaining and collating data, and the potential areas of error in experiments. Both tutors and students felt that the provision of the microscope had added value to the course. In light of these positive ratings, we feel that this unique tool is useful, not only in distance learning, but also in traditional universities where animal experimentation is limited.