{"id":150,"date":"2013-10-22T16:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T16:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/biology-eacademy-introduction-to-virtual-labs\/"},"modified":"2013-10-22T16:21:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T16:21:00","slug":"biology-eacademy-introduction-to-virtual-labs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/biology-eacademy-introduction-to-virtual-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology eAcademy: Introduction to Virtual Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75358728@N05\/7558903642\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Figure 3\" border=\"0\" class=\"zemanta-img-inserted\" height=\"236\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8426\/7558903642_188d06211a_m.jpg\" style=\"border: none; font-size: 0.8em;\" width=\"240\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center; width: 240px;\">Figure 3 (Photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75358728@N05\/7558903642\" target=\"_blank\">Libertas Academica<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Bob Deshamais and Paul Narguizian<\/p>\n<p>Paul is from Cal State LA. He was hired as &#8220;Biology Educator&#8221; &#8211; he focuses on education. They are focusing on GE Biology &#8211; they have a plant and animal bio. They have also converted to the semester system. They are planning on combing plant and animal into a single course. The course is an experiment. They will have data by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p><b>Problem<\/b><br \/>GE Biology is faciltiy and labor intensive with a steady drop in their student success rates.<\/p>\n<p>They are replacing wet labs with online simulations. Thoughtfully implement online labs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Engaging students in scientific methodology<\/li>\n<li>Reducing demand for lab facilities<\/li>\n<li>Decreasing costs&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Addressing both facility and pedagogical bottlenecks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><b>Project Plan<\/b><\/div>\n<div>Overview<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Redesign GE Biology courses &#8211; conversion to semesters<\/li>\n<li>Two new modes of lab instruction vs. trad<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;All labs offered online<\/li>\n<li>Two tracks online and wet labs alternating every week<\/li>\n<li>Both modes = \ud83d\ude42 to \ud83d\ude42 (Lecture and drop-in times)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Labs are staffed with advanced students<\/li>\n<li>Engaging inquiry based exercises vs. traditional &#8220;cook book&#8221; labs<\/li>\n<li>Grading rubric for each online lab<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><b>Project Activities<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>BIOL 144&#8243; Animal Biology (future blend with plant)<\/div>\n<div>Retain large lecture<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>Labs<\/b><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Fall 2013 (two large lecture sections and 16 all onlkne lab sections with 24 students in each lag with 6 GAs @ 10 hrs a week)<\/li>\n<li>Winter 2014 &#8211; One lecture secion and 8 traditional &#8220;wet&#8221; labs = 24 students \/lab with instructor<\/li>\n<li>Spring 2014 &#8211; Two large lecture sections and 16 hybrid lab sections = 24 students \/lab simulation results are idealized; lack of reality<\/li>\n<li>Five of the weekly labs offered online &#8211; others wet labs<\/li>\n<li>Eight of the 16 sections will start with wet labs and then alternate<\/li>\n<li>Three GAs will be hired at 10 hrs a week<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><b>Lab Handouts<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Distributed via Moodle<\/li>\n<li>Background information<\/li>\n<li>Detailed assignment instructions<\/li>\n<li>Assignment requires experiment and interpretation the results in a quiz<\/li>\n<li>Students create a report and turn it in to Moodle<\/li>\n<li>Reports are graded via a detailed rubric<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><b>Project Resources<\/b><\/div>\n<div>They are using an online website both &#8220;Biology Labs On-Line&#8221; and &#8220;SmartScience Labs.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>Projects Assessment<\/b><\/div>\n<div>Ji Son, PhD is the project evaluator<\/div>\n<div>Implementing survey tools<\/div>\n<div>Several questions are being addressed including student satisfaction and performance.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Which delivery mode to students prefer?<\/li>\n<li>Which model provides the best understanding of science?<\/li>\n<li>What problems to students encounter most?<\/li>\n<li>What could be improved?<\/li>\n<li>Do online labs lead to better grades?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>There was a discussion about training GAs (graduate assistants).<\/p>\n<p><b>Potential for Reducing Bottlenecks<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GE requirement&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Courses are limited by space and personnel costs<\/li>\n<li>Each lab section has 20-25 students and requires an instructor<\/li>\n<li>Offering labs for evening students is an additional challenge<\/li>\n<li>Online labs allow increase in enrollments<\/li>\n<li>Less need for lab facilities<\/li>\n<li>Less personnel needed<\/li>\n<li>Costs of personnel and facilites can be lowered by 44% by using virtual labs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><b>Pedagogical Bottlenecks<\/b><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>These courses are challenges for non-majors who often view science as a static body of facts<\/li>\n<li>Cookbook labs with no engagement<\/li>\n<li>Online labs allow students to design their own experiments<\/li>\n<li>Students enjoy the online labs<\/li>\n<li>Results in better student engagement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><b>Scalability and Sustainability<\/b><\/div>\n<div>All projects available via STEM Labs and MERLOT<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>We participated in a demonstration of &#8220;Biology Labs Online&#8221;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/biologylabsonline.com\/\">http:\/\/BiologyLabsOnLine.com<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>We have used this model before with Health Information Management &#8211; we used online simulations to provide students with more opportunities to practice procedures.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;\">\n<h4>Related articles<\/h4>\n<ul style=\"clear: left;\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/tech4classrooms.org\/2013\/09\/29\/smart-science-new-era-in-science-education\/\" target=\"_blank\">Smart Science New Era in Science Education<\/a> (tech4classrooms.org)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=b01cf468-1312-44f6-8c78-d23004cea32a\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Figure 3 (Photo credit: Libertas Academica) Bob Deshamais and Paul Narguizian Paul is from Cal State LA. He was hired as &#8220;Biology Educator&#8221; &#8211; he focuses on education. They are focusing on GE Biology &#8211; they have a plant and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/biology-eacademy-introduction-to-virtual-labs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[253,239,251],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-biologylabsonline","tag-csu","tag-virtuallabs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}