My research is based on visual learning and testing, with a special focus on visual learning and testing the adequacy of the latter. The reason why my research is based at the faculty of Biology is because of the several practical dissection courses. In particularly the dissection practical of 'Anatomy of the Rat'. Dissecting a rat is assumed to be an essential experience to get a thorough understanding of anatomical structures. The task of the students is to identify the different anatomical structures, and to report their observations by anatomical drawings.
Drawings are evidence of the learning process and lend themselves to correction and feedback.
The problem is that a limited number of staff members has to correct the work of about 200 students every year. The correction of the drawings is very time consuming, so students sometimes have to wait for months before they get any feedback. This situation is educationally undesirable. The first solution to this problem was the development of a prototype called Ratview. Ratview is a computer-based interactive correction system for visual testing which allows the students to perform the evaluation of the anatomical drawings by themselves.