Lab Courses

Certain 3-credit science courses will be accompanied by a 1-credit laboratory course, which can be taken at the same time as the primary course or in a later term. As such, the lab course should be designed as a standalone course should it be the only course a student takes. (For example, the learning materials in the lab course should not be contingent upon concurrent enrollment with the primary course.) The same process of drafting course outcomes, overviews, learning objectives, etc. occurs for the lab course in tandem with the primary course development. Typically the primary course's Course Project is drafted prior to beginning the lab course development because the Course Project structure may inform the lab course's structure.

These lab courses often include simulations from the website Labster, which provides virtual laboratory simulations for students accompanied by simple mini-quizzes. Typically, labster simulations function more along the lines of learning materials than as the formative assessments for the week. The lab simulations are curated by a SME and are easily integrated into Canvas. LDs should send SMEs the above link to the library of Labster simulations so they can explore the options available. If they'd like to explore them more deeply, the LD can create a mock course and add the simulations to it so the SME can complete the Labster simulations in full. Some lab courses will have a term-long course project, though not in the same scope as a 3-credit Course Project. Each week does not need to have a discussion because the 1-credit format restricts the amount of assignments/discussions per week and this would be overly restrictive.