Article

Exploration of an Interactive “Virtual and Xiaoqian Xu †‡

William Allen§
Actual Combined” Teaching Mode in Ziwei Miao†
Jiang Yao‡
Medical Developmental Biology Lei Sha‡
Yuhua Chen†*

From the †Department of Developmental Cell Biology, Key Laboratory

of Cell Biology, Ministry of Public Health, and Key Laboratory of Medical
Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University,
Shenyang, China, ‡The Queen’s University of Belfast Joint College,
China Medical University, Shenyang, China, §School of Social Science,
Education and Social Work, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast,
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Abstract
Biochemistry and molecular techniques are used for the
development of the scientific practice of students. To improve
both the teaching and learning quality and promote the stu-
dents’ motivation, this article outlines an interactive “Virtual
Simulation and Actual Operation Combined” approach by
using a tailored virtual practice-learning platform and partici-
pated by students and lectures, as well as a curriculum secre-
tary. The implementation of the Virtual Simulation Laboratory
provides a series of learning resources, which the students
can access in their own time; and the participation of the cur-
riculum secretary also makes the class more interactive and
efficient. This method incorporates an experimental platform
and a virtual experiment class to utilize fully both the tradi-
tional and virtual teaching methods and thereby promote
effective student learning. © 2018 International Union of Bio-
chemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(6):585–591, 2018.

Keywords: “Virtual-Actual Combined” teaching approach; virtual

simulated laboratory; teaching strategies; scientific biological skills;
effective learning

Introduction establish the top research-based hospital in China. Under

China Medical University (CMU) is situated in Liaoning Prov-
ince in Northeastern China. It was the first medical school
established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1931. It was
also one of the first universities to deliver the education of
western medicine in China. The CMU group has currently
four directly affiliated general hospital, as well as one uni-
versity, which plays an leading role in both local medical
treatment and scientific research. CMU has currently
15,548 students (http://202.118.40.32/e/) who are in the
main enrolled to study for Clinical, Medical, and Biomedical
Sciences Degrees. The developmental aim of CMU is to
Volume 46, Number 6, November/December 2018, Pages 585–591
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yhchen@cmu.
edu.cn;
Received 29 May 2018; Revised 13 August 2018; Accepted 10
September 2018
DOI 10.1002/bmb.21174
Published online 12 October 2018 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com)
this background, there is a high requirement of improving
the teaching quality of basic biological science subjects.
This article is focusing on examining the effectiveness of
a “Virtual-Actual Combined” teaching approach in a core
curriculum in the area of “Developmental Biology and
Regenerative Medicine,” which is taken by bachelor stu-
dents in their second year in CMU. In the examining semes-
ter, 453 students participated in this module. They are all
from 7-year clinical classes, who will be enrolled the clinical
master degreed if they can meet the degree objectives. They
had neither laboratory working experience nor professional
trainings before taking this module.
In this module, the topic area contains key biochemistry
and molecular techniques that are widely used in key biologi-
cal and clinical laboratory contexts (Table I). The experimental
components selected here can help the students to understand
and verify the theory of the techniques that they are required
to learn, as well as provide scientific and laboratory practice
opportunities for students. Thus, we have to achieve an objec-
tive to let our students to fully understand and handle these

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 585

 Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Education

Virtual platforms of developmental biology and regenerative medicine

TABLE I

Experimental name Practical contents Functions of the VSL platform

Use of pipettes Laboratory use and maintenance Practice instructions of pipettes

Agarose gel electrophoresis of
nucleic acids
Bradford protein assay
RNA extraction and analysis
Polymerase chain reaction and
sodium dodecyl
sulfate-polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis
of pipettes and decrease the device
damage
Gel preparation; sample loading; Familiar and practice the
electrophoresis operating procedures and
instructions. Decrease exposure
time and pollution of Ethidium
bromide (EB)
Protein extraction; make and use Familiar and practice the
a protein assay standard curve operating procedures and
instructions
RNA extraction of rat liver; RNA extraction is complicated
common problems and because of the ubiquitous
solutions presence of ribonuclease
enzymes, which can rapidly
degrade RNA; the reagent is
also harmful, the VSL platform
provides an safe environment
to student to practice as many
as they want
Polymerase chain reaction Familiar and practice the
principle, gel preparation; operating procedures and
sample loading; instructions. Save reaction and
electrophoresis; common experimental time
problems and solutions

techniques under a limited experimental condition, as well as
simulate their interesting in biological science.
The content of the practical session are very difficult for
students who are new to the area to grasp both from a prac-
tical and a theoretical point of view. Because the molecular
and biochemistry techniques used belong to the microscopic
domain and the associated theories as a result are abstract
in nature. The Virtual Simulation Laboratory (VSL) is essen-
tially a web-based educational tool that can help students to
fully understand the principals and practice by linking these
fully to the theories that they have learned.
After establishment of the “Virtual Simulation Teaching
Experimental Center” in 2013 by the Ministry of Education
in China, VSL learning platforms have gained enormous
popularity in recent years. CMU was an early adopter of
VSL Universities in Liaoning province. Using this approach
provides students with more opportunities to develop their
laboratory skills, without the need for any direct physical
involvement in real bench work [1,2]. In addition, it gives
students the flexibility and independence as to how and
where they work on the development of their laboratory
skills. This approach can be made to be highly realistic and
therefore relates very well to the real laboratory practical,
and as a result, can simulate the learning interesting of stu-
dents [3,4]. This approach also helps the lecturers to save
time and effort in preparing materials for students as well
as collecting feedback on students’ work. Therefore, incor-
porating the VSL approach with the “traditional” practical
sessions in this way has significantly improved the effective-
ness of teaching and learning in this area.
The Virtual Simulated Laboratory
Platform in CMU
The Virtual Simulated Laboratory platform was introduced
to the experimental teaching area in June 2017. This plat-
form is supported by Shanghai Dream Road Digital Technol-
ogy Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China; http://www.mengoo.com/
virlab/), which is one of the first Chinese companies to pro-
vide this type of educational multimedia interactive learning
environment and as such, the company also provides a

586 Virtual Simulation and Actual Operation Combined Approach

technology development service for over 100 universities
based all over China.
When using the CMU VSL platform, students can easily
connect to the open learning resources (http://202.118.40.
68/openlearning/index.html) by using their student’s ID
without any regional restrictions. The learning resources
for each topic area contain a teaching video resource as
well as several related interactive practical exercises, which
students have access to. Within the teaching area of Devel-
opmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, there are cur-
rently several practical training sessions (Table I).

Teaching Strategies
The experimental session of this curriculum has the overall
aim of training students to handle the principles as well as the
operating processes of a series of key biochemistry and molec-
ular techniques, which include ribonucleic acid (RNA) extrac-
tion and analysis, polymerase chain reaction assay design and
optimization, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel elec-
trophoresis, Bradford assay, and western blot. It is important
to note that before this laboratory experimental class, under-
graduates at Level 2 rarely receive laboratory-based training.
They are not as a result familiar with basic experimental
instruments, and the majority of them are unfamiliar as a
result with the use of a pipette, centrifuge machine, spectro-
photometer, and electrophoresis apparatus. As a result, to
achieve the learning outcomes in this area, a series of teach-
ing methods were employed, such as a traditional literature,
experimental demonstrations, small group teaching, and dis-
cussion sessions in all of which the students can ask questions.
In addition, the VSL platform was also employed to increase
the effectiveness of the teaching in this area. As there are over
400 students (in 14 classes) each year, would have access to
the VSL platform at any time, there is also an additional need
for the curriculum to be centrally managed by a curriculum
secretary, who can assist with such activities as the uploading
of resources, creating access rights, as well as helping to
resolve software problems [4]. Because of the participation of
a curriculum secretary, this teaching mode can be described
as a “three-part interactive mode.” The detailed process is
shown in Fig. 1.
With a view to developing the self-learning motivation
and technical abilities of the students, all of the modules
were designed in such a way as to promote small group
working, as well as student problem solving ability. To facil-
itate these modes of learning, students were given the
Information-graph shows the interactive
learning resources that include the principal and practical FIG 1 “Virtual and Actual Combined” teaching
protocols, as well as the instructional videos on the VSL mode. The tasks of secretary, lectures, as
platform, and in addition, there are able to access these well as students were listed and classified in
learning resources before class. three stages (before-, in-, after-class). The
teaching and assessment methods used
They were also required to complete pre-class activities
during this module were also addressed.
such as searching several set questions based on the experi- [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlineli-
mental laboratory activities and the theoretical principals, brary.com]
as well as other related learning intentions for the

Xu et al. 587

upcoming class [5,6]. This was regarded as an important
activity, as the pre-class work not only delivered teaching
material to students but also help focus students’ attention
on areas that could be potentially difficult for them. This
had the net effect of producing richer in-class discussions,
with the online system providing the main means of content
delivery.
In a similar way, the practical classes can also start
with a discussion of the preset questions that the students
should have already prepared their answers for. Previous
experience of the teaching has indicated that students usu-
ally do not pay sufficient attention to the theoretical content
or the principals being introduction at the beginning of the
class, very often as previously stated, as the theories are
abstract and therefore difficult for them to understand fully.
The pedagogical approach was then to move the
emphasis on the theory learning to before class with the stu-
dents having the support and access to the VSL learning
resources. As a result, based on the students’ answers in
these question and answer sessions, as well as the feedback
from the VSL system, the lecturers can quickly assess the
students’ learning on any given topic and then tailor their
teaching approach accordingly. During the experimental
phases of the teaching, the traditional experimental demon-
stration approach, that is one of going through the different
steps that needed to be taken during the experiment, was
still used. However, the lecturer was able to manage the
students in small group sessions, as students were mostly
familiar with the operation of the experiment based on what
they had already learned from the video, in particular on
the VSL. At the end of every session, each group was then
given 2 minutes to present and analyze their results, for the
Summary of students’ online practical data. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIG 2
588
Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Education
students to be able to further develop their skills and abili-
ties in the area of data analysis [7,8].
All of the above approaches can also facilitate the lec-
turers with “real-time” evaluation of student comprehen-
sion and learning needs during the lesson, and this
information can then be used in conjunction with the forma-
tive assessment methods [9–11], to promote a more effective
learning experience for the students. After the practical ses-
sion, in addition to the experiment reports, the VSL online
exercises were also regarded as a key element of the overall
student assessment. In additional, using the VSL program,
students can review the practical videos, repeating the oper-
ating steps according to their own learning needs, and
finally, they can also compose supplementary questions for
follow-up in their small discussion groups and with their lec-
turer. Finally, the lecturers can collect information on the
most commonly asked student questions and any problem
learning areas from the system, and this information can be
summarized and then used in future learning sessions.
Findings and Student Feedback
On completion of all of the practical sessions, the lecturers
found that the learning outcomes were fully attained. In
additional, the students’ motivation for learning had been
increased by using the VSL system. After collecting the stu-
dents’ e-learning data, which include the time the students
spend online and their final practical scores, it was found
that 96.9% of the students worked over 2 hours online after
class. Furthermore, some of the students (15% of 453)
worked more than 5 hours (Fig. 2).
Virtual Simulation and Actual Operation Combined Approach
 Results from students’ minute paper on teaching methods. Values are percentages of student number who
FIG 3 participate the questionnaire survey. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

These results are very encouraging and indicating that
students appear to be very interested in the learning in this
area. Considering the average score of the five experimental
learning areas, the Bradford assay seems to be the most dif-
ficult one in that no class has a 100% score. In additional,
students from classes 74, 74, 78, 83 also seem to spend
more time online comparing to the average levels for time
spent online.
The online practical data showed that students all have
passed the online exercises, which indicated that students had
significantly improved on their procedural knowledge, motiva-
tional levels, as well as their interest in the topic. The results
from the final group presentations and the experimental
reports have also indicated that a great number of students
had made significant improvements in the skill area of data
analysis and in their understanding of the scientific results,
which is highly required in their future employment. In addi-
tion, their higher order thinking skills were enhanced, with
respect to the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning [12]. This was
indicated by a series assessment results that the majority of
students have demonstrated their abilities to explain and anal-
ysis their own data in a professional way.
A minute paper was also given to 100 students (send
and gathered randomly, as well as anonymously) to gain
feedback on the teaching methods used. The comments
have been excerpted in Fig. 3. Of note, 100% of the students
who responded considered that the VSL platform is useful
for learning; 92% of the students stated that they like teach-
ing style and approach used by the lecturers.
Students also stated that they liked the VSL program
which really helped them with their understanding of the
practical sessions. In particular, the instructions given in
the online learning resources helped them to take control of
their own learning which was subsequently applied in the
practical in class. Of note, 95% students mentioned that this
combined mode facilitated them to a deeper understanding
of the topic area than was possible for them to achieve in a
lecture. The students also gave some suggestions for future
improvements (Fig. 4).
In 2017, five lecturers participated in the teaching in
this module area on 14 classes. A year-end review of the
teaching discussed this new teaching mode compared to the
previous year’s teaching and some of the further student
comments are listed in Table II.

Areas for future improvements. Values are percentages of student number who participate the question-
FIG 4 naire survey. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Xu et al. 589

Student feedback on teaching methods
TABLE II
Positive feedback
Teacher 01 “The lesson preparation is more efficiency with the
help of VSL platform.”
Teacher 02 “We made full use of the VSL platform, the
resources delivered before and after class can motivate
students to study according their own requirements.”
Teacher 03 “We save time in preparing materials for students
as well as collecting the feedback of students’ work.”
Teacher 04 “VSL platform is a great support for experimental
teaching.”
Teacher 05 “This combined teaching mode developed my
teaching skills.”
From the teachers’ and student comments, it was clear
that the combination teaching mode showed is now widely
accepted in the student teaching group which has been con-
sidered here. The focus on practical methods, closely allied
to the theoretical concepts in the VSL materials, enables the
classes to more effectively place emphasis on effective stu-
dent learning. The problem yet to be resolved, that has been
reported proposed by both students and lecturers, is to
improve and add more similar online resources of basic skills
trainings (http://202.118.40.68/openlearning/index.html).
Long-Term Learning Effect Evaluation
In CMU, the “ Innovative Scientific Research Projects” can
offer some precious opportunities for the fourth-year stu-
dents to participate some scientific researches in laborato-
ries every year. Within this year, 18 students applied four
projects in our laboratory, 11 of them are coincidentally the
ones who has just finished this module and VSL training
after 1 year. The other seven students were from Legal-
Medicine, Public-Health, and Ecsomatics departments.
Although, they have also attended the related experimental
courses, just trained by the traditional practical ways.
Before they enter the research groups of our laboratory, a
small quiz was done to test their knowledge on the related
biological skills. The quiz contains an objective part of 20 mul-
tiple-choice questions (1 point for each), as well as a subjective
part of 2 essay questions (10 points for each). A close look at
the marks of objective and subjective items indicates that stu-
dents who had been through the “Virtual and Actual Com-
bined” technique trainings had a better performance than the
ones just trained by the traditional practical ways (Fig. 5),
590
Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Education
Suggestions
Teacher 01 “The resources online now is too limited, we
should try to have more related resources.”
Teacher 02 “More operating exercises is needed.”
Teacher 03 “We can establish more online learning
groups for students according to their interesting.”
Teacher 04 “The resources online is too limited, such as
Western Bolt is not complete, we have just agarose gel
electrophoresis.”
Teacher 05 “More resources is welcomed.”
which means this interactive method facilitate their deeper
and long-term grasp of the knowledge.
Discussion
The VSL has enabled the adoption of a “Real and Virtual
Combined” approach to the teaching of the experimental
course content in this area. Overall, the results have shown
Multiple-choice questions and essay ques-
FIG 5 tions marks of long-term learning effect
evaluation. The multiple-choice questions
group represents the multiple-choice ques-
tions, which belongs to the objective items,
whereas the essay questions group repre-
sents the essay questions, which belongs to
the subjective items. The blue column repre-
sents the marks of the students who had the
“Virtual and Operation Combined Approach
(VACA for short)” trainings from our
research. The others represents the marks
of students had just traditional experimental
class without virtual simulation trainings.
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlineli-
brary.com]
Virtual Simulation and Actual Operation Combined Approach
that the learning objectives have been successfully achieved
and even exceeded by both the students and the lecturers.
Through this “Real and Virtual Combined” teaching
mode, students can gain a deep knowledge and understand-
ing of the complex principals and processes through their
interaction with the VSL platform. Their levels of self-
directed and self-motivated learning have been shown to
have increased. The lecturers also reported that their skills
of teaching and designing of experiment had also been
improved as well as their understanding of their students”
learning. As a result, a number of new formative assess-
ment processes have been developed.
The findings of our work suggest that the “Real and Vir-
tual Combined” teaching mode can make both learning and
teaching more active, interactive, and ultimately effective.
Especially, the “three-part interactive” learning activities
promoted a deeper memory of the practical knowledge for
the students. Learning outcomes reported here also demon-
strated the development of the students’ independent learn-
ing, experimental learning, cooperative learning, as well as
their self-directed and independent learning, all of which
aims are fundamental to higher education teaching and
learning [13,14].
With respect to the learning outcomes of the module,
we believe that the assessment procedures are exceptionally
appropriate. Considering Miller’s Triangle [15], all the
teaching method used here allowed the student to be
assessed on their ability to know, know how, show how and
do, and apply, step by step. Moreover, these methods fully
align with the module outcomes, allowing assessment of all
of the identified areas of skills development. To take these
methods even further, we can apply these assessments to
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning as modified by Anderson
et al. [11], and find that these processes reach all of the
stated levels and their subgroups: Factual Knowledge, Con-
ceptual Knowledge, Procedural Knowledge, and Metacogni-
tive Knowledge.
Future work will entail the addition of more learning
topics and associated materials into the VSL and to make
Xu et al.
these available online. Ultimately, the aims are to cover all
of the fundamental biotechnologies, and secondly, to diver-
sify the experimental approach and practical exercises,
therefore as to provide students with a wider and more com-
prehensive VSL learning experience to more diverse cohorts
of students in CMU.
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