Abstract—Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of the
Biomedical Science students were not able to undergo their
clinical internship at diagnostic laboratories and this has
created an impact on students’ skills and the future of the
Malaysian healthcare system. Hence, our objective was to
implement arevolutionized Biomedical Science practicum
completely in a virtual environment, without compromising the
learning outcomes during the pandemic in 2021. To achieve the
intended learning outcomes, various online teaching-learning
and assessment activities were carefully curated in accordance
to standard program guidelines, learning outcomes, student
learning time and thorough analysis of actual student logbooks.
Learning materials were reinforced with various initiatives
such as actual engagements with real-life scenarios via
synchronous meetings with external panelists from hospitals.
Online video-log (Vlog) and a logbook of daily activities were
used as part of the assessment to ensure that students were able
to learn and reflect on the activities performed. The study
showed that all students displayed increased confidence levels in
medical laboratory skills. They were also able to apply them in
real-life situations due to the clear instructions and realistic
experience via the virtual learning activities. Therefore,
students who participated in the virtual practicum
demonstrated almost similar levels of performance when
compared to the students who went for physical practicums in
the year 2020. Our virtual practicum has achieved its intended
outcomes of empowering students with similar skills as those
who underwent physical clinical placements in diagnostic
laboratories. Those skills include successful acquisition of
discipline-specific knowledge, collaborative and communication
skills, as well as solid experimental methods and good
laboratory practices.
Index Terms—Biomedical Science, diagnostic laboratory,
virtual internship.
Ooi Yin Yin, Adeline Chia Yoke Yin, Teoh Ming Li, Lee Sau Har, Tang
Yin Quan, Chua Lin Lin, Looi Chung Yeng, Ng Woei Kean, and Tor Yin
Sim are with School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences,
Taylor’s University, Malaysia (e-mail: yinyin.ooi@taylors.edu.my).
Phelim Yong Voon Chen is with School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health
and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, Malaysia and Taylor’s
Centralised Laboratories, Taylor’s University, Malaysia.
Cite: Ooi Yin Yin, Adeline Chia Yoke Yin, Teoh Ming Li, Lee Sau Har, Tang Yin Quan, Chua Lin Lin, Looi Chung Yeng, Ng Woei Kean, Tor Yin Sim, and Phelim Yong Voon Chen, "Redesigning Biomedical Science Practicum towards a New Frontier," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 12, no. 11, pp. 1221-1228, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).