Electronic Lab Notebooks Impact Biomedical Engineering Students’ Quality of Documentation and Technical Communication
- Conference
- Location
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Columbus, Ohio
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2017
- Start Date
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June 24, 2017
- End Date
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June 28, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical
- Page Count
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8
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--28210
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/28210
- Download Count
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1506
Paper Authors
Monica Dominique Okon The Ohio State University
Monica Okon, a current graduate student in biomedical engineering at Ohio State University, became interested in engineering education when starting as a graduate teaching associate (GTA) for the Engineering Education Department at Ohio State University. She has had the opportunity to teach the Fundamentals in Engineering laboratory component for the standard courses sequence as well as served as a lead GTA for this department for two years. She is currently a lead GTA in the Department of Biomedical Engineering where she helped pilot the electronic lab notebooks in junior level labs.
Tanya M. Nocera The Ohio State University, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Tanya M. Nocera, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University. She is focused on developing, teaching and assessing upper-level Biomedical Engineering laboratory courses, with particular interest in improving student technical communication skills.
Abstract
Laboratory notebooks have long been used as a tool to develop student documentation and technical communication skills in laboratory courses. Given the presence of social media as well as other methods of electronic communication, computer mediated activities provide an opportunity to educate students in a familiar setting. For this reason, we have pursued a study to measure the impact of electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs, LabArchives Classroom Edition) on the quality of upper-level biomedical engineering students’ documentation and technical communication skills. A total of forty ELNs submitted by students enrolled in a biomechanics lab course during autumn 2016 and paper-based notebooks submitted by students enrolled in the same course during autumn 2015 were selected for this study. Notebooks were quantitatively analyzed against a rubric designed to measure how well the selected notebooks met assessment criteria in the categories of communication, documentation and presentation. Results showed significantly higher overall mean and category-specific scores for ELNs compared to paper-based notebook submissions (p < 0.05). It was concluded that lab course notebook keeping in an electronic format may be an effective medium for aiding students in improving documentation and technical communication skills.
Okon, M. D., & Nocera, T. M. (2017, June), Electronic Lab Notebooks Impact Biomedical Engineering Students’ Quality of Documentation and Technical Communication Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28210
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