What can a virtual microscope achieve today?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: Basically, a virtual microscope offers the same functionality as a physical microscope, but also additional features - taking advantage of computer applications. A virtual microscope only needs a scanner that digitizes the objects to be investigated by the students.


When we first introduced the virtual microscope in 2002, it was a real innovation for our students because there was no comparable application available on the market. Within the last few years, large commercial companies such as Aurora MSC have developed complex and highly specialized virtual-microscope applications to be used by medical experts like pathologists and dermatologists. These are mostly stand-alone applications, quite expensive, and not easily usable by students.


We were looking for an application that

• can be used by any standard web browser without additional plugins to be installed locally;
• offers the functionality to set markers and explanatory text within the object so that the teacher can point out important areas the students should pay attention to;
• provides seamless zoom in / zoom out with the mouse wheel (comparable to Google maps);
• offers easy-to-use navigation facilities (mini-map, panning per mouse drag).

In comparison to a physical microscope, the virtual microscope already contains learning elements and information from the teacher for the students. Given this information, students can already start gaining first knowledge within a medical area without a face-to-face lesson. The teacher can join the learning process later on, when students already have their first questions on the subject - this follows the didactic concept of constructivism.


How is it being used in Graz?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: The virtual microscope is seamlessly integrated into our learning-management system Virtual Medical Campus/Moodle. The product we selected offers a client using Adobe Flash technology, which can be executed on any standard web browser. Most of the virtual microscopes are used in virtual lessons, which are fully virtualized lectures having no face-to-face component. However, they are embedded in "modules" where face-to-face lessons take place, and where students can discuss their questions with teachers. Additionally, students can always contact teachers associated to virtual lessons in case they have individual questions.


How do students learn to use it?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: The chosen application (see below for more details) is very intuitive to use, so when we introduced it, we didn't expect to have provide any additional training for the students. Furthermore, most students were already familiar with the virtual microscope 1.0.


Of course, we also evaluated this assumption by a survey amongst the students that consisted of nine closed and one open question. We submitted the survey to 267 students in the tenth semester of medicine and eighteen in the sixth study year (eleventh and twelfth semesters), hence 285 in total. Unfortunately, we only received feedback from 38, resulting in a return rate of 13.3%. Of this, 61% came from male students and 39% from female students; 95% are doing medicine and 5% medicine plus dentistry.


Despite the limited results, it was quite conclusive that the use of the virtual microscope is very intuitive and that students required no additional training. As far as teachers are concerned, providing objects for the virtual microscope is supported by the department's virtual medical campus, which also technically generates new virtual microscopes within VMC/Moodle.


Which fields of studies has it influenced, and what kinds of changes has it produced?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: The virtual microscope is used in six modules, four special study modules, and one university course. It covers the medical areas of pathology, dermatology, and physiopathology. There are currently about 350 virtual microscopes in our learning platform in these areas.


A virtual microscope allows thousands of students to work with at the same time 24 hours, seven days a week; there are no time restrictions to access it. With the introduction of a virtual microscope, we reduced the costs for our university, as there was no more need to buy hundreds of expensive physical microscopes. Only one scanner device is needed to digitize the images of a microscope; these can then be used by the virtual application. This scanner already existed at the Medical University of Graz, so no additional costs arose.


According to our knowledge, most medical universities already have such a scanner at their premises because it is needed for research. Since the virtual microscope is offered via the eLearning system, flexibility for students in terms of time and location is provided as well. Students can use the virtual microscope whenever and wherever they want to. Last but not least, we had the additional possibility of setting markers in combination with explanatory text within the images to directly point out interesting regions for students within a digital sample.


How much has the University invested in the purchase and cost of operation?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: After a short market study, we found three applications that met our requirements. From these, the application Zoomify was the clear winner. Due to its Flash technology, this application can easily be integrated into our LMS VMC/Moodle. Even though a commercial product has the obvious disadvantage of generating a kind of dependency on the company, this is fairly compensated by the facts that the original source code is provided, the company has a huge number of customers (also in medical area), and a very attractive price is provided.


All in all, we invested about 400 USD in the purchase or the new software. The license has to be paid only once, there is no yearly maintenance fee, and the license does not limit the number of users. The operation is easy: new virtual microscopes can be generated within a few hours by the department virtual medical campus for the teachers, including scanning of the object and integrating markers and explanatory text.


How many students can use it?


Dr. Herwig Rehatschek: Since the virtual microscope is integrated within our eLearning platform, all the students of the Medical University of Graz can use it. A total of 4,300 students from four programmes (human medicine, dental medicine, nursing science and a PhD program) currently have access on the approximately 350 virtual microscopes within our eLearning platform VMC/Moodle.