Using Modified Team‐Based Learning in the Medical Histology Lab

Converting the medical histology laboratory experience to a digital format left us with the responsibility of ensuring the students still knew how to use a microscope for future courses in the curriculum. Weekly modified team‐based learning (TBL) sessions involving use of the mucoscope were incorporated to facilitate this. Each TBL session utilized the typical IRAT where students individually accessed the 5 question quiz on the selected organ system. There was a 48 hour window in which they were expected to do this. On the morning of the GRAT (termed the Laboratory Analysis Exercise or LAE) the case was downloaded by the students in the lab. Each case routinely either referenced a pathological slide in their box, or provided an image and asked them to examine a slide of the organ in its normal state. The diagnosis was provided and the students were asked to complete 5 questions about the case ‐ as a group ‐ and submit their group answers by email within a specified time‐frame. Questions involved asking them to describe what they observed as being different structurally about the pathological specimen; related structure to function; and also related their tissue‐level studies to their ongoing gross anatomy experience. This presentation will provide a typical case; outline the benefits and issues as seen by the students in their course evaluation as well as the student liaison group; and lastly the benefits observed by the faculty.