Received: 11 July 2018 | Accepted: 21 October 2018 DOI: 10.1002/cae.22091 RESEARCH ARTICLE Active learning in a real-world bioengineering problem: A pilot-study on ophthalmologic data processing Dominique Persano Adorno | Leonardo Bellomonte Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Correspondence Dominique Persano Adorno, Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy. Email: dominique.persanoadorno@unipa.it Abstract Active learning is a format alternative to the conventional lecture/recitation/ laboratory; research results have reported that it is suitable to encourage student inquiry and foster peer mentoring. Although the availability of computer-based learning materials in biomedical sciences is increasing, there are relatively few studies aimed to integrate traditional methods of teaching with inquiry-based approaches utilizing these Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools. This paper describes a pilot-study on a comprehensive active laboratory course about digital ophthalmologic signal classification, experienced by a group of undergraduates in Bio-Electronic Engineering. During the activity, the students became able to discriminate healthy subjects from patients affected by two retinal pathologies: Achromatopsia or Congenital Stationary Night Blindness. The study was based on the analysis and classification of the electroretinograms, that record the retinal response to a light flash. To process electroretinographic data, a software based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition and an Artificial Neural Network was used. Our findings indicate that this laboratory experience can be considered effective in improving student's reasoning skills and that students acting as investigators achieve a better outcome, presumably because this activity satisfies their psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. KEYWORDS active learning technologies, collaborative learning tools, educational software applications, electroretinogram, learning via discovery 1 | INTRODUCTION Scientific education at university level is still mostly based on introducing theoretical concepts, whereas less attention is devoted to develop practical skills. Laboratory activities, in fact, are often presented to the students as a mere experimental validation of acquired theories. We believe that this approach is unnatural for younger learners, who prefer to be actively engaged in experiencing how a job should be learned and carried out when they are involved in the study of scientific disciplines, that require the develop- ment of higher-order reasoning skills and problem-solving abilities The Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation's Education and Human Resources Directorate, in reviewing the state of undergraduate education in various science fields has determined that the majority of the students finds the lecture-based courses dull and unwelcoming; consequently, many graduates join the workforce ill-prepared to solve problems by themselves or in a cooperative way. The National Science Foundation (NSF) recommends that a Comput Appl Eng Educ. 2018;1–15. wileyonlinelibrary.com/cae © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1