Staff posted weekly asynchronous lessons that were based on pedagogical principles of active learning and teaching-by-questioning, promoting engagement and higher order thinking. Lessons consisted of text interspersed with questions, multimedia content and links to external resources. In most lessons, students worked their way through a simulated practical session with provided data.
 
Student engagement was high (87% at pre-honours level, 100% at honours level) and students evaluated the lessons positively, praising their practical focus and the instant feedback. They valued the lessons as a virtual laboratory experience while laboratory access was restricted, but also expressed the wish to keep using the software when on-campus teaching would resume. Only one student did not feel it was a suitable replacement. No technical issues were reported.

Staff evaluated the learning platform as intuitive and visually attractive. Staff used ready-made lessons in physiology and neuroscience, edited content to fit the course, and authored new lessons. The Technical Services Team provided video material and participant data that were used to generate hypothetical data sets. The wide range of question types and ways to work with data in graphs and spreadsheets enabled staff to create a library of virtual laboratory sessions in line with the learning outcomes.

In sum, the new online learning platform was perceived by students and staff to provide relevant experiential learning in an online environment. The use of the learning platform is currently integrated with on-campus laboratory sessions.