The Bachelor Programme of Biomedical Laboratory Technology at University College
VIA is a 3½ years programme, which consists of 14 modules. Almost all modules include
teaching both at campus and in hospital laboratories. The students are typically between 20
and 30 years old, the majority being female. Attending the programme is free of charge, but
they have to buy their own textbooks, and they are also requested to bring a laptop to college
every day. Lecturers at VIA University College create study plans on the basis of the study
regulations and the curriculum, and have a certain degree of freedom of choice in relation to
which themes, books, resources, and students’ learning activities they use in their teaching.
The decision to bring tablets into the microbiology laboratory can be seen as one such
pedagogical decision made by the lecturers.
In the autumn of 2012, twelve tablets were introduced into the microbiology laboratory at
VIA University College. We provided the groups with a base model iPad 2 with 16 gigabytes
(GB) of storage capacity