What if students get to do real lab research, rather than follow recipes?

Active Learning design: Considering cognitive load

Richard de Boer

This activity was originally designed for second year Biomedical Sciences students (about 100–120 students in the practical), but Richard and Vincent now use the LabBuddy tool for all lab courses they coordinate, to support students before and during practical sessions.

Lab sessions are compulsory, and students traditionally struggle with taking their first safe steps at the bench while absorbing a lot of new information. Richard often saw students get overwhelmed by the lab, get stuck in experiments, and get frustrated, so he deliberately focused on the cognitive load these sessions bring.

To minimise overload from new machines, materials, and rules, students now prepare their lab session with LabBuddy. Before even entering the lab, each student makes a concise plan of all experiments, based on the underlying theory and formative questions with immediate feedback. On top of that they get a visual overview of the experiments and equipment. “It gives them a mental map of what they’ll be doing and thereby reduces extraneous load. It’s presented on a single, well structured screen, so the tool also limits simultaneous information streams and manages intrinsic load”.

Vincent Blum

Freely available knowledge clips, produced by Vincent and a team of colleagues, are integrated in the tool. They show students the exact equipment they will use. “You don’t want students to watch a general video and then explain that ‘well, at our lab, we do it just a little bit different…’; that only causes confusion” says Vincent. And confusion, that’s extraneous load. “It means that you have to make in-house video’s, but compared to the learning gains and reducing information overload, that’s worth it.”

During the lab sessions, students work in small groups on a research question that mirrors genuine biomedical research problems. Not: “The first experiment will be a DNA isolation from two human tissue samples. The DNA will be amplified using a PCR. Mutations will be detected by Taqman and Sanger Sequencing.” But: “Can you determine which melanoma subtype the patient is suffering from?” The students then decide on experimental design, collect data, and receive interim feedback.

This lets them adjust their approach on the spot, rather than following a linear protocol. It deliberately optimizes germane load: they direct their mental effort at constructing a coherent experimental model, not at struggling with other input.

Student experience: Novice researchers

Evaluations showed how students went from feeling frustrated to feeling “like novice researchers”. They described the lab as “intense but highly educational”. Vincent enjoyed seeing that there was room for ‘messing around’, and clarifies: “Educated messing around! The kind the students learn from. We see them enjoying themselves during lab sessions.”

As a supporter of inquiry-based learning, Vincent sees most profit there. “OK, every now and then a student would use a video to just copy the moves… But in general, we really saw the energy turn towards formulating questions and planning experiments. I would love to do a small official research to measure to what extent our lab-courses prepare students for real-life research.”

Also for Richard, student behavior was the most striking change. “The biggest reward is seeing transformation in the students: they come into the lab better prepared, and they can justify their decisions confidently. A great sign of their appreciation is that students who applied for TA-ship especially asked to teach this course, because they found it the most fun and educational one!”

Lessons learned: Scaling up takes time

Richard was surprised by how small interventions, such as letting students explain their choices, generated deeper learning and conversations. “Raising the course level does not necessarily require more content; rather it’s about redesigning how students interact with the material”, he realized. Vincent agrees and specifically enjoys the flexibility of this digital tool, compared to printed, two-dimensional manuals. “It’s very easy to tailor the tool to your specific course, and that gives breathing space and control.”

For those reasons, Richard hoped to use the tool in other courser sooner rather than later. “For students”, he feels, “it’s best when a well-functioning method reoccurs, instead of having it in one course only.” However, applying changes to a whole curriculum takes its time. But, as of next year, more wet-lab courses in the Biomedical Sciences program will use it for varying tasks; some for preparation, others will try the newest feature, to create a digital lab-journal. Vincent: “The TAs who heard about this were very satisfied! It gives them a recognizable structure, too. Overall, it creates a balance between traditional methods and digital support.”

Advice for colleagues: First a bottleneck, then a tool

For any redesign, Richard advices: “Start by identifying the bottlenecks. Where do students get stuck, lack agency, lose interest? What takes up their mental space? Use that to select tools or tweaks. Don’t just use technology for the novelty of it. For our courses, LabBuddy really fitted the goal.” And next: “Keep in mind how students learn and focus on authentic, end‑to‑end tasks. Allow students to iterate and reflect on outcomes.”

Vincent quotes Maria Montessori and says: “Let students learn by doing things themselves. A course design like this doesn’t make practicals ‘too easy’; it helps direct the focus towards doing experiments and learning deeper skills.”

Get in touch and try it yourself

Richard and Vincent are happy to share their experiences with colleagues who are interested in this way of structuring a laboratory course and/or using LabBuddy. You can reach Richard at r.deboer@uva.nl and Vincent at v.a.blum@uva.nl.

“The laboratory knowledge clips are created by Vincent, Richard, Carlijn Kuijk, Anne Timmerman and Edwin van Lacum, and here you can access the Molecular techniques and Immunology videos.
You can also check the LabBuddy website to see how not only Richard, but also lecturers at other universities, use the tool.