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ABLE 2007: University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY June 5-9. Host: Ruth Beattie
E-mail: rebeat1@uky.edu
Mini Workshop
Friday June 9
Lawrence, Sonya Michaud
Moving the Prelab Out of the Laboratory
Laboratory exercises in introductory biology are often characterized by having
detailed and time-consuming pre-lab instruction given by the lab instructor
(in our case, graduate teaching assistants). We found that our lab instructors
were spending an average of 40 minutes per lab session introducing important
conceptual basics and giving detailed procedures. In order to better utilize
lab time (that is, provide more time for the hands-on activities that we value
in labs and the guided critical thinking), we have attempted to replace much
of the talk time with on-line prelab homework assignments. We use an open-source
learning management system called LON-CAPA which, as one of its strengths,
provides the capability for highly individualized homework problem sets with
extensive controls, record keeping, and analysis of student responses. Students
complete prelab homework assignments online before coming to lab. Assignments
variably include such aspects as basic concepts, experimental design, practice
data collection, review of specific protocols and making predictions about
experimental outcomes. After two years using these prelab assignments, we can
observe two major outcomes: 1) students come to lab sessions better prepared
and 2) the lab instructors prelab talk time has been reduced to approximately
twenty-five minutes. In addition, thanks to the analytical functions
of the system, we can readily assess the students learning and obtain advance
insight into potential misconceptions so that the instructor can prepare to
address them during the lab session. The students work hard to solve the problems
in order to earn the assigned points. We continue to refine and expand
our library of online resources available for both pre- and post-lab exercises. The
LON-CAPA platform provides built-in sharing mechanisms such that our resources
are freely shared and available to the larger LON-CAPA community (currently
33 colleges, universities, and high schools). In this Mini Workshop, you will
have the opportunity to be a student in our course and to experience the individualized
prelab and postlab homework assignments. You will also be introduced
to the shared resource library of LON-CAPA and how LON-CAPA can be used as
a course management system.