Abstract:

The students of the subject Physiology and Physiopathology III of the Pharmacy Degree at the Universitat de Barcelona attend laboratory practical classes and other complementary activities, besides the theoretical classes. One practical session is based on the observation of microscopic preparations of healthy tissues from different organic systems and is oriented to the identification of the different structures. The organic systems included in this subject are respiratory, urinary, endocrine and reproductive systems.

The time devoted to the observation at the microscope depended, to a large extent, on the skills of the student and the presence of the teacher, who had to confirm or correct the identification made by the student and give the guidelines for a correct interpretation of the tissue section. For this reason, we designed and implemented an interactive application, named Histozoomer, in order to improve the learning of the student in the recognition and interpretation of the tissues at the microscopic level.

By using the NanoZoomer Digital Slide Scanner, we scanned at high resolution the whole microscopic slides, including different depths of the sample. Thereafter, we pointed in the images the structures that the students should learn. Then, the images, which can be viewed with the NDP.view software, were placed available at the Virtual Campus of the Universitat de Barcelona, where the students have direct access. In the Virtual Campus we also placed the correct names of the structures signalled in the images. Thus, Histozoomer allowed to practise the microscopic visualization of the tissues once the practical session was finished, allowing to improve the learning.

The day of the final exam, the students answered a survey designed to capture the degree of their satisfaction about this interactive tool. They valued positively this interactive application, as an 80.2 % of the students considered that this tool helped them to improve their learning. Moreover, the students that used the tool obtained higher qualifications than those who did not use it. In any case, Histozoomer has to be considered as a complementary tool and not as a substitute for the microscope. In this regard, a 58.5 % of the students indicated that they preferred to use the microscope than the computer tool during the practical session.

In conclusion, the Histozoomer was a useful self-learning tool for the students, acting as a complement to the face-to-face activity in the lab with the microscope, and improved the teaching-learning process.

Keywords:

Self-learning, virtual environment, histology, microscopy, practical classes.