On-Line Manual Enhances Student Learning

 

Arthur L. Buikema, Jr., William Zabaronick, and Mary Alice Schaeffer

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2001, Volume 22

Abstract

In 1998, the Biology Department at Virginia Tech instituted an On-Line Biology Laboratory Manual for Freshman Biology laboratory classes. This enables students to prepare for laboratory exercises prior to class and allows more class time for doing experiments and discussing the results. As most of our labs are two hours long, students previously only had time to learn basic information pertaining to the lab, then they barely had time to complete our most involved exercises. We did not have a way to insist students read the lab beforehand, except to quiz them, which would take up even more class time. The on-line manual has improved the students’ knowledge of basic concepts and less time is used in class explaining these concepts.

Keywords:  Laboratory course teaching strategy, laboratory instruction

Clemson University (2000)