This Innovation Lab will center on both the structure and delivery of using cloud-based technology, HOLcloud, in online science courses. Special emphasis will be placed upon how this emerging technology resource extends and reinforces learners’ laboratory experiences within the courseware, using pedagogical tools not found in previous kits or traditional laboratory exercises.
GOALS
Participants in this Innovation Lab will:
• gain a practical, hands-on understanding of science-based distance learning and the various courses where distance learning can be integrated;
• interact with Hands-On Labs’ online and cloud- based platform functionality to experience its various features and ease of use for both instructors and students;
• receive greater insight into how instructional methodologies are integrated into online science courses
• learn how technology can make teaching science easier for the instructor and engaging for the student.
DESCRIPTION
Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey began designing and teaching biology, chemistry and physics distance learning courses in 2006. Today, OCC students can earn an associate’s degree in science entirely online. Additionally, many of the science courses taught at Ocean County College have been recognized by Quality Matters and other organizations for their content and structure, and for providing unique “hands-on” laboratory experiences.
Aside from basic course construction, the key to the success of Ocean County College’s distance learning courses is the implementation of Hands-On Labs’ HOLcloud, a valuable resource provided in all HOL-produced courseware. HOLcloud removes limitations to learners’ ability to access course support materials. Hands-On Labs offers the only interactive digital courseware that is totally WCAG 2.0 compliant and that fully integrates with an already-existing Learning Management System.
The interactive online courseware is fully customizable for each instructor. Students can choose to work on their lab reports anywhere, anytime, on any device. All labs for each of science course are pre-loaded into the HOLcloud platform, requiring very little work on behalf of the instructor.
HOLcloud works in conjunction with the Hands-On Labs laboratory kits that are provided to each student in the course. The lab kit contents align pedagogically with the laboratory exercises performed in our face-to-face classes. These kits and supporting materials are constantly updated by professionals in the sciences, providing the instructors that utilize them a high degree of confidence that learners are receiving a pedagogically sound lab experience.
These experiments provide the same reinforcement as a traditional brick and mortar lab, and in many cases, allow learners to experience the labs on a much deeper level. Essentially, online science students at Ocean County College have access to lab equipment and specimens all the time, as opposed to once a week, or just once a semester.
The purpose of the lab is to show participants the exploration and experimentation that leads to production of the lab report. The highly interactive nature and concise, easy-to-follow instructions of the Anatomy & Physiology II blood typing lab experiment offers each participant the opportunity to conduct a hands-on experiment and to receive practical, accurate and measurable results.
Discussion: Presenter Marc LaBella, facilitating virtually over the internet, will give a five-minute introduction of the Hands-On Labs (HOL) distance learning platform for instructors, requiring an internet connection, laptop, projector and screen. He will explain that each participant will conduct a real-world lab experiment, facilitated by the cloud-based HOL platform, and guided by his existing courseware. He will provide a brief overview of the platform functionality, and will touch on the variety of science courseware offered.
Once the Instructor overview is complete, Prof. LaBella will switch the onscreen display to the Student view of his Anatomy & Physiology II course.
Demonstration: The group will be asked to break into pairs, with HOL’s two in-class facilitators ensuring that each participant has a lab partner. A pre-opened Anatomy & Physiology lab kit will be provided to each set of lab partners.
As a group, participants will progress, through Exercise 1 and Exercise 2, which contain five total essay-type questions and a data table directly related to the blood typing lab experiment (approximately 20 minutes). The in-class facilitators will enter the group’s responses in the online class module via laptop.
Example Questions:
1. Why does the body need hemoglobin? Which cells contain hemoglobin? What element must be present for hemoglobin to perform its main function?
2. A person with which blood type could receive donations from any other blood type (Include ABO type and Rh factor type)? Why?
Innovation: After successfully completing the question and answer portion of the interactive science lab, participants will focus on the hands-on blood typing experiment.
The group will watch a brief how-to video, built into the online science course. The video details each step necessary for participants to determine their blood type by completing the experiment using the materials provided in their lab kits.
Prof. LaBella will then instruct the lab partners to follow the 12-step process detailed in the experiment courseware displayed on screen. Upon the successful completion of the experiment (approximately 10-15 minutes), each lab partner will have determined his or her own blood type.
For real-time demonstration purposes, one lab partner from the class will be selected to upload his/her photo to the HOLcloud via cell phone (or class laptop) to a weblink provided by Prof. LaBella.
A lab report containing all the responses to the questions in Exercise 1 and Exercise 2, including blood type, will be generated in both the Instructor and Student HOLcloud platforms. The report can be printed, but for purposes of this Innovation Lab, it will be saved as a PDF.
After completing the lab experiment, the remainder of the Innovation Lab will be used for a question-and-answer period for participants (approximately five minutes).