PLEASE NOTE:  Remote course delivery through the end of the spring semester, including labs. Labs must be delivered via distance, remote and online means through the end of the spring semester. There will be no classroom instruction.

One of the biggest challenges of teaching during a building or campus closure is sustaining the delivery of instructional laboratories. Since many such classes require specific equipment, they are difficult to reproduce outside of specialized physical space.

Resources

Library Resources

JoVE Science Education is a revolutionary video library dedicated to teaching scientific fundamentals through simple, easy-to-understand video demonstrations.

SAGE Research Methods supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. Nearly everyone at a university is involved in research, from students learning how to conduct research to faculty conducting research for publication to librarians delivering research skills training and doing research on the efficacy of library services. SAGE Research Methods has the answer for each of these user groups, from a quick dictionary definition, a case study example from a researcher in the field, a downloadable teaching dataset, a full-text title from the Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series, or a video tutorial showing research in action.

Strategies

As you plan to adapt the delivery of instructional laboratory courses, please consider these strategies:

Take part of the lab online

  • Many activities require students to become familiar with certain procedures and only physical practice of those processes will do. In such cases, consider whether or not there are other parts of the experience could be taken online--video demonstrations of techniques, online simulations, analysis of data, other pre- or post-lab work--and defer the physical practice parts until access is restored. The approach may suffice in the event of relatively brief disruptions.

Introduce virtual laboratories

  • Online resources and virtual tools might help replicate the experience of some labs, including virtual dissection, night sky apps and simulations. The possibilities vary widely by discipline. Your textbook publisher, or sites such as Merlot, may have materials that might help replace parts of your instructional laboratory during an emergency.

Provide raw data for analysis

  • In cases where the activity includes both the collection of data and its analysis, consider showing how the data can be collected, then provide some raw sets of data for students to analyze. This approach is not as comprehensive as having students collect and analyze their own data, but it might keep them engaged with parts of the experience during an emergency.