Meeting Laboratory Course Learning Goals Remotely via Custom Home Experiment Kits

TL;DR

This paper presents a cost-effective approach using custom home experiment kits and adapted group projects to effectively meet physics lab learning goals remotely, maintaining student satisfaction and collaboration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel remote lab setup with custom kits and revised group projects tailored for online physics education, achieving learning and collaboration goals.

Findings

Learning goals were successfully met remotely.

Student satisfaction remained high.

Effective collaboration was maintained via video conferencing.

Abstract

In this paper, the use of cost-effective, custom home experiment kits for remote teaching of first-semester introductory physics labs is described. The kit experiments were designed to match the existing onsite lab experiment learning goals and the general laboratory course learning goals in remote teaching. Additionally, a revised group project approach optimized for remote use and that leverages the kits was developed and employed. Student survey results at the end of the Summer 2020 semester indicate that the critical learning goals were met, student satisfaction with the remote lab was maintained, and successful collaboration via video-conferencing breakout rooms was achieved.