Biology wet lab e-learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A review of student learning and experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic began as a health crisis and quickly turned into an economic, social, and political crisis. It revealed the vulnerability of education systems to external changes and risks and challenged institutions and educators to transform and adapt at short notice. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, one of the natural consequences was the unprecedented rise in online education. The transition from the in-person teaching format to e-learning exposed teachers and students to significant challenges. In the biomedical field, e-learning forced teachers to rethink hands-on wet lab teaching into a hands-off virtual one; this digital transformation has continued in the post-pandemic period and has resulted in the emergence of hybrid models trying to harmonize the benefits of e-learning with those of in-person teaching. In this narrative review, we analyzed articles published between 2020 and 2024 focusing on the teaching of molecular and cellular biology laboratory through online or blended learning formats. We focused on the impact that pedagogical innovation in laboratory e-learning has had on student perceptions, experience, and outcomes. We have extracted five major themes that should be considered by educators involved in course design to enhance the benefits of exposing students to learning in a virtual lab: (1) the varying effectiveness of laboratory e-learning, (2) the potential for online labs to foster self-efficacy and confidence, (3) the reduced opportunities for social interaction in virtual settings, (4) students' perspectives on virtual, blended, and in-person lab work, and (5) the importance of addressing student inequities in digital access.