Most, if not all, of today’s medical laboratory directors received their education well before the impacts of the pandemic. Until the last decade, the concept of remote learning was largely theoretical, and there was no question as to the value of hands-on learning throughout medical laboratory science and its application through technology. As clinical laboratories around the country struggle with staffing issues, it is essential that laboratory directors understand how best to continue developing the skills learned in school into and throughout the working laboratory. The ways in which students and practicing laboratorians best learn and hone new skills is likewise essential to understand. The ability of new and existing staff members to retain what is learned in training is key to all phases of lab practice and deserves attention.

Although the rapid development of new and updated technologies and automation will continue to facilitate operations and streamline many traditionally manual tasks, there is no replacement for well-educated technicians and technologists entering the profession with applicable skillsets. Likewise, there are ways in which the following methods can be applied to continuing education in the laboratory workforce.

Remote Learning and Retention

Remote learning is still finding its proper foothold in both education and clinical laboratory practice. Exploding into prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional (ie, limited) structure of remote learning rapidly expanded out of sheer necessity to create sufficient learning environments for students.

There is thorough research being conducted on how remote instruction impacts a student’s quality of learning, but little has been done to investigate how remote learning has affected specific actions in medical laboratory science education on key elements of study and note-taking and the resulting impact on retention. Finding effective ways to emphasize learning habits that optimize retention will benefit every aspect of clinical laboratory training, and the resulting boon to clinical laboratory practice.

Note-Taking and Review

Historically, students take notes for the sake of summarizing lecture material for review.¹ Given that the average person hand-copies words at a speed of 13 words per minute and the average lecturer will speak at around 100-150 words per minute, hand note-taking methods may be ineffective in capturing detail.^2,3 Electronic methods can increase the speed of note-taking to an average of 140 words per minute, accommodating even rapid speakers, yet it has also been established that this increased speed is not strongly correlated with information retention or improved study habits.²

Addressing this point, studies have found that writing by hand induces an oscillatory brain wave movement in the parietal lobes and occasionally deeper structures in the brain such as the hippocampus and limbic system.⁴ Both the presence and synchronization of this oscillatory movement strongly correlate with working memory performance and the ability to encode new information.⁴ Conversely, desynchronized brain wave activity has been observed in subjects who use typewriting (ie, keyboard) to transcribe information, indicating lower attention and alertness.⁴ Understanding current preference and efficacy of learning modalities for both students (ie, future employees) and current employees is critical to maintaining knowledgeable, skilled healthcare professionals.

Survey of Current Learning Preferences

A survey was recently completed by 24 clinical laboratory science students at Idaho State University’s Medical Laboratory Science Program to assess learning preferences. The average age of respondents is 25.9 years. Interestingly, despite the numerous technological advancements of the last decade in mobile recording technology, 66.7% (n=16) of those surveyed report hand-writing preferences in their note-taking and 87.5% (n=21) believe hand-writing notes is the best method for retaining information (see FIGURE 1). However, 79.2% (n=16) of those same students prefer completing assignments via typing on a computer or tablet, while only 12.5% (n=3) prefer completing assignments by hand (see FIGURE 2).

The students were also surveyed on preferred learning methods, specifically regarding hands-on training and note-taking. The survey respondents were given 7 statements to rate on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree (see FIGURE 3). The statements were broken down as follows:

• Statement 1: Practicing hands-on lab activities improved my understanding of concepts learned in the classroom.
• Statement 2: The method I use to take notes affects my retent- ion of concepts taught.
• Statement 3: Taking notes helps me engage with the material presented.
• Statement 4: Taking notes aids in my retention of material presented.
• Statement 5: Typing an assignment (as opposed to hand- writing) improves my quality of work.
• Statement 6: I feel more engaged in my learning when I hand- write my notes.
• Statement 7: I feel more engaged in my learning when I type my notes.

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