Improving Practical Competence through Laboratory Simulations in Bioscience Education

Practice-based learning is central to bioscience education, yet growing cohort sizes, limited laboratory capacity, and the need to ensure student safety continue to present significant challenges. Virtual laboratory simulations are increasingly recognised as a powerful way to address these pressures, with strong evidence showing improvements in student preparedness, confidence, and understanding of laboratory workflows. Building on this wider evidence base, we have moved beyond piloting and are in the process of integrating LearnSci interactive simulations into our undergraduate bioscience curriculum. Provisional student feedback has been highly positive. We are also collaborating with LearnSci to evaluate the benefits for our own student cohorts and to tailor the simulations to enhance inclusivity while providing scalable, safe, and high-quality preparation for laboratory work. This presentation will outline how lab LearnSci resources support practice-based education within biomedical science, sharing examples of implementation within a module, and their massive potential in modern practice-based education.