Development and Incorporation of Learning Objects in Laboratory Science Education

Clinical Laboratory Science, Summer 2004 by Kanuth, Michelle S, Freeman, Vicki

With the increasing demands on both academic and clinical faculty time, shortcut strategies for creating lectures, distance education activities, and other visual and interactive lesson components have become imperative. A FIPSE grant was written to allow University of Texas Medical Branch, in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, to develop and catalogue Learning Objects (LO) for educators to share. LOs are simple, stand alone snippets of information that are developed independently of an entire lesson. LOs range from a photograph to video and audio clips to short interactive activities. The LOs being developed for Microbiology will be available in a medical repository, or digital library, that can be accessed by educators in clinical laboratory science and clinical laboratory technician programs, microbiology, and biology. The process of LO development, cataloguing through key words, and examples of the use of a single LO in several different lessons are demonstrated. Using pre-existing LOs in lesson development will significantly decrease the time and effort required to present cutting edge, visually stimulating, and interactive educational activities.

Michelle S Kanuth PhD CLS(NCA), Vicki Freeman PhD CLS(NCA), University of Texas Medical Branch, GalvestonTX