Incorporating Virtual Labs in Introductory Geology Courses

Bottlenecks in introductory geology (EES1) labs arise from two compounding limitations: the number of students a lab room can hold and the number of graduate students available to serve as teaching assistants (TAs). This past Fall 2014, EES1 had ~500 seats available for ~5400 eligible GE B1students. Despite that bottleneck, lack of TAs resulted in the cancellation of 1 lecture and 5 accompanying labs. Given that the number of EES1 sections offered each semester is limited by the lab, there is a huge potential to make EES1 less vulnerable to limitations on lab size and TA availability by offering hybrid labs, where half of the labs are online and half are hands-on. This redesign seeks to implement virtual labs to reduce bottlenecking while updating EES1 lab curriculum into something that engages students at more innovative, modern levels of learning.