Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology.
The urgent need to develop a more equitable bioeconomy has positioned biotechnology capacity building at the forefront of international priorities. However, in many educational institutions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, this remains a major challenge due to limited access to rea...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327975 |
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| author | Ariel Cerda Alejandro Aravena Valentina Zapata Anibal Arce Wladimir Araya Domingo Gallardo Javiera Aviles Francisco Quero Isaac Nuñez Tamara Matute Felipe Navarro Valentina Ferrando Marta Blanco Sebastian Velozo Sebastian Rodriguez Sebastian Aguilera Francisco Chateau Ruby Olivares-Donoso Jennifer C Molloy Guy Aidelberg Ariel B Lindner Fernando Castro Pablo Cremades Cesar Ramirez-Sarmiento Fernan Federici |
| author_facet | Ariel Cerda Alejandro Aravena Valentina Zapata Anibal Arce Wladimir Araya Domingo Gallardo Javiera Aviles Francisco Quero Isaac Nuñez Tamara Matute Felipe Navarro Valentina Ferrando Marta Blanco Sebastian Velozo Sebastian Rodriguez Sebastian Aguilera Francisco Chateau Ruby Olivares-Donoso Jennifer C Molloy Guy Aidelberg Ariel B Lindner Fernando Castro Pablo Cremades Cesar Ramirez-Sarmiento Fernan Federici |
| author_sort | Ariel Cerda |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The urgent need to develop a more equitable bioeconomy has positioned biotechnology capacity building at the forefront of international priorities. However, in many educational institutions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, this remains a major challenge due to limited access to reagents, equipment, and technical documentation. In this work, we describe Open Educational Resources (OER) composed of locally produced biological reagents, open source hardware and free software to teach fundamental techniques in biotechnology such as LAMP DNA amplification, RT-PCR RNA detection, enzyme kinetics and fluorescence imaging. The use of locally produced reagents and devices reduces costs by up to one order of magnitude. During the pandemic lockdowns, these tools were distributed nationwide to students' homes as a lab-in-a-box for remote teaching of molecular biology. To test their performance, a total of 93 undergraduate students tested these resources during a biochemistry practical course. 27 out of 31 groups (~87%) successfully achieved the objectives of the PCR activity, while 28 out of 31 groups (~90%) correctly identified the target using LAMP reactions. To assess the potential application in secondary school, we organized three workshops for high school teachers from different institutions across Chile and performed an anonymous questionnaire, obtaining a strong agreement on how these OER broaden teachers' perspectives on the techniques and facilitate the teaching of molecular biology topics. This effort was made possible through a close collaboration with open source technology advocates and members of DIYbio communities, whose work is paving the way for low-cost training in biology. All the protocols and design files are available under open source licenses. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7e14e67fc7e849138c5bb50b2b3efe18 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-7e14e67fc7e849138c5bb50b2b3efe182025-08-20T03:59:35ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01208e032797510.1371/journal.pone.0327975Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology.Ariel CerdaAlejandro AravenaValentina ZapataAnibal ArceWladimir ArayaDomingo GallardoJaviera AvilesFrancisco QueroIsaac NuñezTamara MatuteFelipe NavarroValentina FerrandoMarta BlancoSebastian VelozoSebastian RodriguezSebastian AguileraFrancisco ChateauRuby Olivares-DonosoJennifer C MolloyGuy AidelbergAriel B LindnerFernando CastroPablo CremadesCesar Ramirez-SarmientoFernan FedericiThe urgent need to develop a more equitable bioeconomy has positioned biotechnology capacity building at the forefront of international priorities. However, in many educational institutions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, this remains a major challenge due to limited access to reagents, equipment, and technical documentation. In this work, we describe Open Educational Resources (OER) composed of locally produced biological reagents, open source hardware and free software to teach fundamental techniques in biotechnology such as LAMP DNA amplification, RT-PCR RNA detection, enzyme kinetics and fluorescence imaging. The use of locally produced reagents and devices reduces costs by up to one order of magnitude. During the pandemic lockdowns, these tools were distributed nationwide to students' homes as a lab-in-a-box for remote teaching of molecular biology. To test their performance, a total of 93 undergraduate students tested these resources during a biochemistry practical course. 27 out of 31 groups (~87%) successfully achieved the objectives of the PCR activity, while 28 out of 31 groups (~90%) correctly identified the target using LAMP reactions. To assess the potential application in secondary school, we organized three workshops for high school teachers from different institutions across Chile and performed an anonymous questionnaire, obtaining a strong agreement on how these OER broaden teachers' perspectives on the techniques and facilitate the teaching of molecular biology topics. This effort was made possible through a close collaboration with open source technology advocates and members of DIYbio communities, whose work is paving the way for low-cost training in biology. All the protocols and design files are available under open source licenses.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327975 |
| spellingShingle | Ariel Cerda Alejandro Aravena Valentina Zapata Anibal Arce Wladimir Araya Domingo Gallardo Javiera Aviles Francisco Quero Isaac Nuñez Tamara Matute Felipe Navarro Valentina Ferrando Marta Blanco Sebastian Velozo Sebastian Rodriguez Sebastian Aguilera Francisco Chateau Ruby Olivares-Donoso Jennifer C Molloy Guy Aidelberg Ariel B Lindner Fernando Castro Pablo Cremades Cesar Ramirez-Sarmiento Fernan Federici Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. PLoS ONE |
| title | Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. |
| title_full | Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. |
| title_fullStr | Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. |
| title_short | Open educational resources for distributed hands-on teaching in molecular biology. |
| title_sort | open educational resources for distributed hands on teaching in molecular biology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327975 |
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