Labs, Studios, and Activity Courses

Labs, Studios, & Activity Courses

Labs

Labs can be a challenge to perform remotely since many require specific equipment and may be hard to reproduce outside of a lab. Resources like the Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) can help you get your lab online. Use the following resources to help you deliver your lab online.

• Guidance for Remote Teaching of Lab Courses: Weight the pros and cons of creating your own labs versus using 3rd party lab kits versus virtual labs.
• Incorporate free and fee-based virtual labs curated through  MERLOT Virtual Labs.
• Browse over 40,000 materials in different categories through the  MERLOT Collection.
• Employ one of many learning objects authored by our CPP faculty on CAFE's Multimedia Learning Objects Repository.
  Here are some examples of the use of learning objects for labs throughout different disciplines:
  • Organic Chemistry — Thin Layer Chromatography, Chemical Kinetics and Equilibrium, and Liquid Extraction
  • Geography — Orographic Process
  • Biology — Post-Translational Modifications and Understanding Gene Structures
• Consider creating video demonstrations of techniques for pre- or post- lab work. Some of the tools that you can use on your MAC or Windows laptop for video creation are:
  
  • Powerpoint to record presentation slides with narration 
  • Camtasia to record your screen for the creation of software demonstrations, simulations, and presentations 
  • Adobe Spark Video to create simple explanations by using photos, video clips, and icons to your voice narration.  Log into Adobe to access your free  Adobe Spark account using your CPP bronco account.

Studios

Cal Poly is a learn-by-doing campus that has many studio courses. These types of courses can be challenging in situations where you must teach remotely. Consider these tool suggestions and how they can be used in a variety of disciplines.

• Have your students record their student-generated content (ex: performances, cooking examples, speeches, etc) and upload it to YouTube for review, discussion, and critic with the instructor and the rest of the students. When uploading videos to YouTube mark them as “unlisted” and put the link in your Blackboard course shell. Our Learning Technologies page has tutorials on creating YouTube videos. Disciplines that might be able to use this tool include: Instrumental, Vocal, Performing Arts, Student Generated Content, Cooking.
• Use Zoom videoconference to record your instructional lectures. Our Learning Technologies page has tutorials on using Zoom. Although Zoom can allow you to lecture “synchronously,” i.e. your students get on Zoom at the same time you do, we recommend using Zoom “asynchronously,” recording your lecture using Zoom’s recording feature. Synchronous Zoom requires a strong internet connection. Examples of disciplines that might be able to use this tool include: Instrumental, Vocal, Performing Arts.
• Use Adobe Spark to have your students create simple infographics, stories, and animated videos. Have your students use it to create web pages that tell a story using Spark Page, develop compelling video stories using Spark Video, and design infographics using template-based graphics in Spark Post. Students can log in using their CPP bronco ID and select what type of project they need. Examples of disciplines that might be able to use this tool include: Photography, Cooking, and Environmental Design.
• With Portfolium, students can showcase their collection of projects, work samples, skills, activities, and accomplishments. Students can post course projects and other accomplishments to showcase their learning achievements. Instructors can create Portfolium assignments right within their Blackboard courses. Students can use their Bronco ID to log in.

Activity Courses

Activities can generally be done from anywhere with the right tools. Use the following tools for assignment submission, activities, quizzing, and group projects.

• Use Blackboard Testing tools
• Blackboard Discussions
• Blackboard Assignments
• Email for sending attachments
• Employ one of many learning objects authored by our CPP faculty on CAFE’s Multimedia Learning Objects Repository Here are some examples of the use of learning objects throughout different activity courses:
  • English Grammar — Syntactic Tree Structures
  • Spanish Linguistics — Spanish Morphology
  • Chemistry — Making Molecules and Atomic Electron Configuration
  • Networking — IPv4 Subnets and IPv4 Supernets