Integrating Laboratories into Online Education
Distance education is becoming an increasingly popular modality for earning college degrees. The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning polled more than 2,5000 colleges and universities in the U.S. and found that 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2009, an increase of almost a million over the previous year.
However, according to Lamar University professor M. Khalid Hamza, this growth tends to be concentrated in programs like business administration, education and communications. In other words, programs with no laboratory component. "This level of growth isn't found in science and engineering programs," he said. "Schools still don't have a viable way to facilitate labs in the virtual world."
Online Lab Technology In Early Stages
That's not to say that technologies haven't been invented in an effort to integrate labs into online courses. In fact, Hamza is the co-creator of Remote Labs Environment (RLE) - a combination of hardware and software that allows students to perform real laboratory experiments over the Internet.
"It's a very advanced technology that could make it possible for students to complete online degrees in science and engineering programs," Hamza said. "Students can actually control devices of a lab remotely to get experiments going. The response from students has been very positive."
Hamza has conducted a number of studies over the past 10 years to test the effectiveness of remote labs and gauge the response from both faculty and students. In one study, titled Distance Education: Remote Labs Environment, volunteer students from Florida Atlantic University used the technology to conduct a handful of different laboratory experiments. While 57 percent of students in the study preferred to take online courses with a physical lab component, 31 percent preferred online courses that utilized remote labs, and only 12 percent preferred online courses that utilize software simulation.
The study concludes: "Based on this survey, which is limited to the number of student and number of questions asked, students seem to prefer online courses while still using physical lab rather than online courses using other modalities (software simulation or RLE). While remote labs may never replace conventional labs, fully and at least for now, it can be a very efficient modality of distance learning and an embedded design that compliments both conventional labs and remote labs."
Some of the advantages of remote labs versus on-campus labs are that they offer accessibility for disabled students, provide a risk-free method of conducting dangerous experiments, allow many students to conduct the same experiment at the same time and allow different institutions to share the same laboratory resources.
Despite the success of early experiments and interest from some higher education institutions, the technology is not currently being used. "Unfortunately, the remote lab technology hasn't moved much since [the initial studies]," Hamza said. "If we had the funds, it's possible that we could see this technology being used within 24 months. What we need is a great grant writer to help us obtain the funds to launch the technology successfully."
Other Online Lab Delivery Methods
While advanced technologies such as remote labs haven't made it into the classroom yet, some higher education institutions are using their own methods of online lab delivery. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, for example, distance education students do conduct labs at a distance. Instead of software simulation or remote labs, though, students tour facilities in their local area or complete experiments at home.
In a case study titled, Integrating Labs into Online Distance Education, students who enrolled in a distance microbiology course at the University of Missouri were required to have a light microscope with a 100x oil-immersion objective and 10x eyepiece. Because use of the light microscope was limited to one hour each week, students were encouraged to contact local water treatment plant laboratories and medical clinics to see if they could use their equipment for one hour each week. Students were then sent complete lab kits with all of the materials and instructions necessary to complete the experiment.
After the experiment was complete, test cultures were sent to a local examination proctor who was approved by the university. "These online laboratories force students to take an active role in their education, but the students are never let to learn in isolation; they utilize human resources in their local areas and share the results of their experiments with other students."
Online Course Finder
Find the path to your
education in 3 easy steps.
