Abstract:

In recent years, dynamic teaching and learning in higher education is moving from face-to face to online-distant collaborative environments. In a similar fashion, Biomedical Research has progress towards the use of databases and technological tools to routinely manage the great quantity of scientific information available. Therefore, there are a large number of databases and software that must be understood and learned to in order to be well prepared for a good research in Biomedicine. Based on this, the authors of this work exploit the use of new technologies to adapt the teaching of practical courses to the virtual learning format and at the same time update the contents of the practical courses to resemble current laboratory research. Students will integrate the use of Big data and software with theoretical knowledge to develop an experimental protocol to validate a new therapeutic target in type 2 Diabetes mellitus. The work is divided into three stages: In the first one, by using active learning students will consult gene banks and will use specialized software to develop experimental tools to overexpress the biological target. The second stage is a face-to-face learning and the students will perform in a laboratory the experimentation related with the first stage. Finally, in the third stage an active collaborative learning writing, and journaling will be used to elaborate a final inform in which the students have to present their experimental results and discuss their results considering the previous data to which they had access. With all this, students will learn tools routinely used in Biomedical research to design experiments. In addition, this virtualization of a part of the practices, reduce the occupation of the laboratories allowing the adaptation of the practices to the extraordinary situation of distant-learning caused by COVID-19. In addition, advancement in open source virtual learning platforms, will enable the development of flexible online learning environments that can be accessed anywhere, anytime and in anyplace by students.

Keywords:

Experimental tools, virtual learning, theoretical knowledg, experimental protoco.