Enhancing laboratory experience through e-lessons

• E-lessons for two bioanalytics experiments were created.
• Each e-lesson consisted of two screencasts and a self-assessment quiz.
• E-lessons enhanced students’ theoretical and practical readiness for the experiment.
• Most students perceived e-lessons as a valuable pre-laboratory training tool.

This paper describes the development and use of e-lessons in an undergraduate level laboratory course. The pilot study involved creating e-lessons for two bioanalytics experiments: polymerase chain reaction and high performance liquid chromatography. Each e-lesson consisted of two screencasts and a self-assessment quiz. No e-lesson was prepared for the bioanalytic experiment on surface plasmon resonance and served as a control to evaluate the efficacy of the e-lessons on student performance, as well as students’ perceptions of the value of the resource. Student feedback showed that majority of the students perceived e-lessons as a valuable pre-laboratory resource, which provided them with the opportunity to better prepare themselves for the laboratory by gathering the necessary theory for the experiment, as well as familiarize with the instrument at their own pace.