Dr. Khaleel Assaf teaches Chemistry at Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan. Over 2,000 of his students use Labster. Dr. Assaf led the way in acquiring Labster at his University as a lab replacement during the pandemic but is glad that virtual labs are here to stay as he found it helpful to assign Labster as pre and post-lab exercises. He discovered that he was able to improve student access to labs and give the students the possibility to do more experiments with Labster.

Read more about how:

• Dr. Assaf uses Labster as a pre & post-lab tool
• Labster enables students to safely make mistakes
• Expensive labs are accessible with Labster virtual labs

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‍Labster simulations used:

• HPLC: High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

• Lab Safety

• Chemistry Safety: Hazard Symbols

• Titration: Neutralize an acid lake contamination

• Solution Preparation: from salt to solution

• Liquid-liquid extraction: Extract caffeine from your everyday drinks

• Proton NMR: Spectra interpretation

• Light Microscopy

• Cell Structure: Cell theory and internal organelles

Pre-lab assignment

“For some of the advanced chemistry courses, sometimes, the experiment itself in the lab requires a very long time. So usually I wanted to get the students’ hands in the experiments by using Labster as a pre- lab then at least that would save a lot of time. It’s going very well.”

Virtual labs as an evaluation tool

“When I assign it post-lab, I use it as an evaluation tool. So, after explaining the experiment and doing it in the lab, Labster’s simulations are applied to make sure that the student got the idea either behind the experiment itself or how to use the equipment and devices which are associated with the experiments.”

Students are able to participate

“If we have big groups, then there will be, less of a chance that each student can try the experiment him or herself, therefore, using virtual labs as pre-lab first worked well. Because then the students at least had an overview of what they had to do in the lab. Consequently, things go fast; even if they work in groups there is always no problem.”

Ability to make mistakes

“I would say a good thing about Labster’s virtual labs is that you can make mistakes. Usually in the lab, you are ruled by safety and you’re always under pressure not to make mistakes. With Labster, a mistake would cost you nothing. You could just step back and do the experiment again.”

Expensive labs accessible with Labster

“What’s good about Labster is you don’t always have all the equipment to run advanced experiments. There are some instruments that would cost millions. And for such instrumentation, you cannot give full freedom to the students to use it. With Labster, there are simulations that are helpful in this regard, such as high- performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).”