CAN ONLINE LABS REPLACE TRADITIONAL LABS?

Online classes are becoming increasingly more common in universities. Yet, the validity of this teaching method is largely untested, especially for online laboratory classes. To determine whether online content delivery is as effective as its traditional counterpart, we compared the performance of students in an online lab activity and a traditional lab activity.

Online social networking has been used previously for students to present information and to collaborate with fellow students. The results of these studies showed high test scores and increased student confidence in the material they learned, but failed to directly compare the online assignment with a traditional counterpart. In order to measure student learning in both online and traditional collaborative lab activities, we utilized two different lab sections from an introductory geoscience class. Each group completed an anonymous pre-activity, post-activity, and end-of-semester assessment that was traceable throughout the semester by assigning each student a personal identification number. These assessments consisted of short answer and multiple choice questions about the learning material.

Each group received the same directed learning materials, modified for the type of course delivery. For the traditional lab section, this included an interactive project that involved collaborating with other students in-class. In the online lab section, the students made a short video and shared it with other students who would then comment to foster discussion of the course material.

After analyzing the pre-activity, post-activity, and end-of-semester assessments, we observed an increase in average test scores following the completion of the activity in both types of formats. Our study shows that online labs are an effective teaching method when compared to traditional learning. We also looked at the effectiveness of the large-group learning aspect in the ‘traditional’ lab, finding improvements in their assessment and scores. Overall, our results suggest that the students retained similar knowledge in both online and traditional lecture classes.