Online Labs

The first option to consider is a physical lab that can be done at home. With this type of lab the faculty member will either design the lab to use products students can easily acquire on their own, or work with a third party supplier where a student could purchase an entire kit that is delivered to their home. If you decide to choose the latter method we recommend carefully planning your labs to ensure that students are not purchasing products that won’t be thoroughly used throughout the semester.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Provides a hands on lab experience

• Several companies provide high-quality kits at reasonable prices

• Experiments are typically related to real-world applications

• Reduced costs to the department

• Fulfill lab based learning objectives

• Can be expanded to include wet lab experiments

Cons

• Experiments can be limited due to access to materials and safety

• Quality of outcomes can be varied

• Cost of materials for students

• Lab results could vary

• Up front development time for faculty

• Difficult to provide immediate instructor assistance

Recommendations for third party supply companies.

• Carolina Biological Supply

Offers customizable lab kits, provides tech support, and staffs instructional designers to help faculty put together kits and lessons.

• eScience Labs

Offers customizable lab kits, digital companion curricula, provides tech support

• Hands-on Labs

Offers customizable lab kits, digital companion curricula, provides tech support

Tips

• When you develop this type of lab, try to keep flexibility in mind. You may need to plan for things like a delayed lab kit or a broken piece of equipment. 

• If possible, endeavor to plan labs with materials that students can acquire locally at a hardware or grocery store.

• Tell students about the lab kit purchase as early as possible so they have plenty of time to order it. (Or reach out to the bookstore to see if they can stock it.)

• Consider requiring students to take a picture of the completed lab with their lab manual that has their name and date on it to confirm they were the person who performed the experiments.

• Work with your department to develop a safety guide and a liability waiver. Consider making that an early assessment that is required before the rest of the lab can be completed.

The next option to consider is using a virtual lab in your course. In this case the faculty member will work with simulation software to develop experiments that students will then complete in a virtual lab space, online. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Many students are already very comfortable with game-like simulated environments

• Can be a cheaper option for students

• No issues with safety or liability

• Reduced costs to the department

• Labs can be more complex since there is no cost of materials or safety issues

Cons

• Virtual labs may not afford as much customization as at-home labs

• Students need reliable access to the Internet and a computer

• More tech support might be needed for software configuration issues

• As this becomes more popular these services might go down if usage is too high

• Students do not get a tactile lab experience

Recommendations for virtual labs

• Labster

Labster gives students access to a realistic lab experience that will let them perform simulated experiments and practice their skills in a risk-free learning environment. This product is compatible with Blackboard, and several UM-Flint faculty have already implemented Labster in their courses.

• Visible Body

A good resource to support, or replace, in-home dissections.

• Publishers

Many academic publishers now offer online lab options to accompany their books. MacMillian, Wiley, and Pearson.

Tips

• Be sure to run through the virtual labs yourself to make sure you are satisfied with the processes and outcomes.

• Direct students to the lab provider’s tech support, not the OEL or ITS tech support, as they will not have access.

The University of Michigan is providing an Electronic Research Notebook (ERN)  for all faculty, students and staff. The ERN provides a secure and compliant replacement for traditional paper lab notebooks, and allows researchers to enjoy the benefits, efficiencies, and long-term cost savings of centralized, paperless data storage. It also aids in lab management, protects intellectual property, facilitates secure collaboration, and offers simple sample tracking.

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