Watch and learn - laboratory practical made easy.

Abstract

Laboratory skills are crucial to put the theory in use. However, due to the limited periods allocated for practical classes, students are not given the sufficient opportunity to fully grasp the necessary skills and understanding. At such, approach to enhance the quality of the practical sessions within a limited time becomes a challenge. In this project, a survey was conducted to investigate if the current teaching quality is sufficient and the possible problems students faced during the practical. In addition, we proposed and designed the use of a novel video aid to

enhance students’ learning experience and improve teaching quality. Results from our study show that students indeed encounter some problems in their practical. These include difficulties in understanding the purpose of the experiments, unclear instructions in protocols, uncertainty of

equipments usage and difficulties in hearing or observing the laboratory briefings. Our findings also suggested that students prefer visualised form of teaching aids and demonstration done by instructors. Moreover, students are highly receptive to the use of video aids. Finally, owing to the numerous advantages of video aids, our video protocol could potentially solve most of the

problems that students highlighted.