Collation of student results in practical class experiments in physiology, using a BBC ECONET computer network

Funding was provided to Queen's University by the Department of Education and by the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland to provide microcomputers for undergraduate use. An allocation from the grant to the Department of Physiology enabled the purchase of 20 BBC Master 128 microcomputers with monitors used as student work-stations connected together by an ECONET network with a file server using a dual floppy disc drive, two printer servers and two demonstrator stations. A BASIC program was written to analyse the students' practical class measurements which they entered manually at their work-station keyboards. Class results were presented to the students in the form of frequency distribution histograms or X/Y graphs. Program modifications to suit different practicals can be made relatively easily. The time taken to analyse data has been shortened. It is easy for the students to get immediate comparison of their own results with those of the rest of the class--particularly advantageous if the student's own experiment did not work. The class can be divided into groups to study different variations of the experiment and provide the data from each group to the whole class. The students' opinions on whether the equipment had (1) improved the teaching of physiology and (2) provided helpful preparation for the use of computers in medical practice were assessed by a questionnaire which showed that a clear majority felt these aims had been fulfilled.