The 6 Main Reasons Why Most Educators Will Continue To Use Some Aspects of Remote Learning In The Future…

Welcome to another academic year of teaching! Hopefully you are feeling good about the trajectory your labs will be taking this fall. At the very least you are probably thankful that it’s fall 2021 and not fall 2020. Last year at about this time you may have been stressed, unsure of what to expect, apprehensive of how remote learning would work for you. Now you are a year wiser. And after listening to many of you talk about your remote teaching experience, we learned that many of you, while planning to resume face-to-face labs, also plan to incorporate aspects of remote learning into your curriculum, because, for various reasons, parts of it worked for you.

Here are some of the main reasons you’ve told us you plan to continue to use some aspects of remote learning…

1) You’ve discovered that recordings are a valuable resource

Whether you plan to make your lectures available on video for students who missed class to watch or you plan to have the students watch an instructor demo the lab so they know what to do and expect in lab, many of you have told us you’ve discovered the power of video for your lab courses. We’ve heard of an instructor who wants to keep a library of recordings on the more difficult topics. And another instructor who strives to make the videos just as unusual as her classroom experience is. Some of you embrace the idea of using voice overs to complement slides, photos, or models of introductory material.

Digital platforms like Van-Griner Learning’s LabRight can take your videos to the next level as pre-lab prep. It has a narrated slide show capability: PowerPoint slides that can integrate outside video, voice over and questions into a seamless presentation. Voiceovers can be laid under your visuals or ours and for any audio, we can post a transcript synched to the video so that students can read what’s being said as they hear it. With a video lecture or video presentation, every student gets the same instruction no matter who actually teaches the lab. Plus, it’s easy to feature libraries of supplemental material that can aid students who need a little extra instruction.

2) Flipped classes are more popular than ever right now

It might be because you have limited lab space and must split the class up so everyone gets some lab time or because you want to make the most of your in-person time by having the students engage in actual lab or group work when together. We hear that you’ve seen improved student outcomes when students prep on their own and use class time for activities. One instructor we heard from liked having his students watch videos and then submit their study guides based on those videos. Another tells us he likes to post the introductory material online and save the class for a discussion of the more advanced concepts.

LabRight makes the most of flipped (sometimes referred to as blended or hybrid classes—they are essentially the same except the latter two may not necessarily focus on activities or group work in the classroom). It’s so flexible that any part of the lab experience can go digital and complement your in-class purpose. Pre-lab can focus on getting students prepared to fully engage in the lab experience. Post-lab can reiterate what they learned or provide a powerful follow-up to the lab experience. And getting parts of the lab completed digitally means that you’ve got more lab time to share with more students. It’s a far more effective method of accommodating a heavier student load than building new labs.

3) You’ve seen how digital assessments save instructor time

Using online pre-work to pinpoint problem areas so in-class time can be spent zeroing in on where students need more help was also a theme for some instructors. Other support for digital assessments came from those who appreciate it as a review tool, those who like to open note quiz or test, those who don’t like taking up precious in-person time with it, and even those who want to continue using Respondus in the testing center.

LabRight excels at assessments, offering more than 20 types of auto graded questions, many more options than fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice. Videos can be broken into segments and followed by randomized assessments so students can test their grasp of the material. Students can use LabRight for lab activities, graphing & plotting, data recording, and whiteboarding. It features a chemistry editor, the ability to aggregate class data, and variable grading—robust capabilities mostly missing from an LMS and many other platforms.

4) Using some digital elements has made your life easier

We’ve heard that some of you like certain lab topics conducted online because they are more cost-effective and safer that way. Some of you plan to use virtual labs as a supplement for students who still need help understanding a concept. Others are glad to have digital options for times when classes are cancelled so learning isn’t cancelled too. Instructors revealed that they’ve discovered the benefit of keeping an organized online calendar and that the online submission of some assignments is easier for everyone.

Features on LabRight can be changed to allow for more or less digitization, depending on your wants and needs. That includes some labs that can work online using variable data, automatic graphing, 3D rotatable images, and a full on-screen editor. LabRight’s calendar is an efficient and easy way for students to see what is due when and can easily be updated by the instructor if dates need to be moved around or extended. Lab reports can be uploaded and downloaded with ease. Students can also communicate with the instructor inside of the platform.

5) You value active learning

The consensus among those who dislike remote learning seems to be the passivity of some of it.

Those who found value in remote learning frequently zeroed in on the portions of it that required activity from the student. Some remote classes asked students to navigate digital databases and conduct their own research. Some classes incorporated online activities to augment learning. Other classes made use of a wide variety of digital tools: some of which were free, some purchased from publishers, and some created by the instructor and available on the LMS to create what they felt was a well-rounded digital experience.

One of LabRight’s biggest benefits is its ability to incorporate a wide variety of material from disparate sources into one clean, efficient, resource. For instructors who have taken the time to create the information they want their students to learn from as well as those who have pulled material from a selection of different resources, it can all come together so that students aren’t leaving the platform (and getting waylaid elsewhere) to get their work done. They can learn, test, turn in work, and communicate with the instructor all in the same place. Lessons can be peppered with assessments that require the student to be actively engaged. And some of the assessments, like drag and drop, adaptive, and sorting, are more creative ways to engage than the basic question types available on an LMS or on some homework platforms.

6) You want value

The concern may stem from your administration mandating caps on lab costs or on course learning materials in general. Or it may be that you are all too aware of how much students are spending for their lecture and lab materials and want to keep prices down for them. But many of you are put off by the high cost of many digital options. You may be assigning some of these materials anyway but aren’t happy about it or maybe you created your own and are posting on your school’s LMS.

We work with many instructors who start off self-publishing but ultimately decide they’d like a more professional end product or for someone to take over the editing and trouble-shooting for them. And the cost to students is much lower than you would expect. $30 for most subjects; $35 for A&P using BioDigital 2D and 3D rotatable models. It’s a modest cost for a resource tailored to your purposes with no waste and superior customer support for the life of the platform. Add to this your cost in time to set up and continue updating your material, time saved through auto grading, and time spent trouble-shooting and your overall cost savings is markedly greater.

We’d like to hear from you about your plans for using digital going forward and showing you how LabRight might be the way to achieve your objectives. 

Our LabRight Platform Is a Great Solution For Labs

LabRight, an all-in-one seamless digital platform, is ideal because it is customizable and offers simple, lab-specific digital tools. We set it all up for you and provide training. LabRight turns the challenges you’re facing into new teaching and learning opportunities. LabRight is so flexible it can be used for face-to-face, virtual or hybrid labs, and is ideal for pre-, in- or post-lab work.

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Van-Griner Learning

Van-Griner Learning is a  full-service, affordable, publisher of digital and print solutions. We unlock the power of publishing by designing affordable digital and print solutions to meet your specific needs. We provide Labs, Textbooks, Worktext, Homework, OER, Readers, Courseware and more!
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