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The Complete Guide
Table of Contents
- What are virtual labs?
- 6 ways to teach with virtual labs
- 7 challenges in science education (and how virtual labs can help solve them)
- Research on virtual lab effectiveness
- What are the Technical Requirements?
- Does it Integrate with my LMS?
- Watch a webinar or live demo of Labster
- How much does Labster cost?
- Get in touch
Talk to us
Do you teach biology, chemistry, physics or other sciences at a high school, college, or university? Are you looking to move your science class online, engage your students, and improve their learning outcomes? Contact us to talk about curriculum alignment, pricing and more.
What are virtual labs?
What are virtual labs?
Virtual labs are simulated learning environments that allow students to complete laboratory experiments online and explore concepts and theories without stepping into a physical science lab.
Students can try out lab techniques for the first time and become more familiar with advanced lab equipment that might otherwise be inaccessible.
Through animations, students can explore life science at a molecular level and look inside the machines they are operating.
Virtual lab software creates opportunities for alternative access to science education.
Labster's virtual labs
Labster’s virtual lab simulations allow students to work through real-life case stories, interact with lab equipment, perform experiments and learn with theory and quiz questions.
A Labster virtual lab simulation is an immersive 3D interactive learning environment. The learning environment may look like a laboratory – or sometimes like a forest or like the desert plains of our imaginary exoplanet, Astakos IV.
Over 1000 schools, colleges, and universities around the world are using Labster as a pre-lab, supplemental learning resource, or as a replacement for a face to face lab during the pandemic.
Video: All About Labster Virtual Labs
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Explore Labster's virtual lab simulations
You can see them all by searching Labster’s catalog. Click on each simulation overview to read its learning objectives, understand which techniques and theories it covers, and see how it looks.
6 ways to use virtual labs
6 ways to use virtual labs
1. As a visual aid to teach complex concepts
Virtual labs can be used to help you as a teacher explain complex theoretical concepts. A visual, immersive experience can make it easier for students to get to grips with complex concepts, such as the composition of DNA.
2. To refresh students’ knowledge before teaching new material
Labster can be used as a tool to help students reflect on previously covered topics. Using the simulations as a prerequisite to new material can help eliminate the time and resources that may otherwise be used to ensure the students are up-to-date on their learning.
3. As a pre-lab exercise
Labster can be used as an exercise to teach students the safety measures, techniques, and procedures that will be required before they undertake a real-life lab experiment. This can be particularly useful if the experiment is complex or new to the students.
4. To provide lab work to courses with no existing lab component
For students in courses that lack a lab component due to time restraints, a lack of resources, or for other reasons, using Labster can majorly enhance their learning.
5. To facilitate online learning
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, teachers have relied on Labster to support students who are learning at home. Labster’s quizzes help teachers to record and track students’ academic progress so they can initiate individual coaching when needed. Assessments can also contribute to an overall class participation grade.
6. As a post-lab exercise
Virtual labs can be used following a lab experiment to help students reflect upon and analyse their results. This can be helpful to ensure that students internalise the tools and skills that they have learned.
Why I chose virtual labs: A way to fix the problems that exist in science education
Dr. Helen Gadegaard, former Professor and Customer Success Manager at Labster
“Labster visited my university at a time when I was looking for scalable (digital) teaching resources that would allow a truly active learning experience for my students and align with the key learning outcomes that I already had at the foundation of my course.
Sounds like too much to ask for, I know!
I needed something that was going to provide a solution to my problems with lab teaching, which were compound. I had been heavily involved with a lot of lab teaching and could see that, despite the fact that one hundred students were sitting in front of me in white coats at their bunsen burners, this wasn’t always ‘active learning’.
Students were whisking themselves through protocols and procedures as quickly as possible, and wouldn’t think about why they were applying these methodologies, or how they worked. Worse than this, I saw bored and disengaged students being turned
off their subject by the fast pace and the mental leap they were having to make from lecture (theory) to lab (practice).
Further to this, resources were being stretched to maximum in our lab classes (time, space and money), and we were struggling to make efficiencies without diminishing the learning content or experience for students.
The virtual labs meant that I was now able to introduce my students to a range of topics, concepts and practice in a much more flexible way. I could take some key laboratory learning out of the lab. We could open new doors too and have worry-free fun using equipment that would be completely out of reach and budget for us in a traditional lab setting.
Labster made it easier for me to teach and easier for my students to learn. Its virtual labs eliminated a number of issues that were previously limiting the structure and breadth of my course.
In this guide I have worked with the rest of the Labster team to highlight some of the key problems that I used to face in my teaching, and the ways in which virtual labs helped to eliminate them.
Through fixing these problems, and offering an easy and fun addition to the traditional labs in your course, I honestly feel as if Labster could transform the learning experience of you and your students.”
7 challenges in science education (and how virtual labs can help solve them)
Challenge #1: Limited lab access
Many high school and university students cannot get their hands on lab equipment. Whether it is due to social distancing during the pandemic or the high cost of specialized equipment, many schools are not able to teach important lab techniques.
Using virtual labs lets you introduce students to a range of advanced machines and equipment. Students that have access to this virtual equipment have the opportunity to practice, become familiar, and become confident with the equipment, before entering a real lab.
Labster’s virtual labs offer students a true-to-life lab experience at a fraction of the cost of a real lab. The virtual labs have advanced machines and lab equipment such as compound microscopes complete with digital cameras and dissecting microscopes. By using the virtual labs, schools have been able to cut costs on equipment and save thousands of dollars.
The cost of performing experiments can also be dramatically reduced with virtual labs. For example, in order for students to perform a next generation sequencing experiment in a face-to-face lab, sample preparation alone can cost up to a thousand dollars per student. Running the next generation sequencing lane can cost three times that much. In a virtual lab, you can give students unlimited access to these at no additional cost.
“Labster helped open the doors to a
more inquiry based style of presenting
the content, because the students were
exploring. They were walking around
in a virtual lab, messing up, making
mistakes, and learning from those
mistakes. This is something that you
typically can’t do all that well in a hands on lab, where you have a fixed amount
of time, fixed amount of resources, and
safety concerns have to come into the
equation."
Kambiz Hamadani
California State University San Marcos
Challenge #2: Limited time in the lab
Very few students have unlimited time to spend in a lab due to safety and cost reasons. At the same time, many experiments are time-consuming, and lots of time can be wasted on waiting for experiments to complete. Additionally, students sometimes feel the pressure of finishing experiments quickly. As a consequence, students’ attention can shift from learning the experiment to just getting it done.
Using virtual labs allows you to give students an endless amount of time to repeat and engage in experiments. In fact. virtual labs allow students to control time: Students can speed up time to complete experiments and study results faster, slow down time to see the details of rapid chemical reactions, and go back in time to repeat experiments multiple times.
There’s no rush in a Labster simulation, so students can go at their own pace, checking theory whenever they want, and repeating experiments again and again, until they’ve mastered it. They don’t have to worry about making mistakes.
In Labster’s Embryology lab, for example, students might incorrectly place a needle in an egg during the windowing experiment, or forget to sterilize the outside of the egg prior to windowing. It is just as likely that students make these mistakes in the virtual lab as it is in a real lab. The key difference is that, in the virtual lab, students can speed up the time in the incubator and quickly see the results to find out if they performed the procedure correctly.
If they made an error, they can simply go back in time and try the methodology again. That means that a lot of time is saved, and since the embryo is virtual, there is no loss or waste of resources.
“I think what I appreciated most when I
first started using Labster was the fact
that within 20-30 minutes, students
could evaluate a technique that normally
takes hours and is quite boring and dry.
And because of the animations and
the way the simulations have been put
together, students could alter conditions
and actually step a little beyond what
they would have been able to do if they’d
been in the laboratory.”
Caroline Smith
Westminster University
Challenge #3: Low student motivation and engagement
Classrooms with a passive learning environment significantly reduce students’ motivation to learn and engage in the content of their course. In addition, students tend to become disengaged if they cannot see or understand the real-world relevance of what they are learning. Down the road, you risk ending up with unmotivated students, some of whom eventually drop out.
Conducting experiments in a virtual lab allows you to engage your students in a unique, enriching and immersive experience that has real-world relevance and application. Students can explore new and fascinating environments (some simulations even take place on other planets!) and they can freely experiment in a lab with cool, advanced machines perhaps not usually available to them.
Many students love having a range of learning tools available to them when trying to understand a new concept or technique, and having virtual labs as a part of your tool box offers students that. In fact, within each simulation, students are challenged with quiz questions, can study theory pages, visualize concepts with 3D animations, and much more.
“The students really love that each
simulation has a story, letting them
understand how they can use the
techniques and apply them in the real
world.”
Pirjo Spuul
Tallinn University of Technology
“When I think of the Meiosis lab, there’s
a story behind it. You’re following a
couple going through IVF. In the HPLC
lab, you’re analyzing medicine. So you’re
working with real world applications and
you can make real world connections
with the course content, as opposed to
just coming into a lab in school, where
you follow a lab protocol, you do what
you’re able to do, sometimes without
giving it much thought, and you go
home... you learn better when you’re
able to attach meaning to a concept or
theory. When learning is contextualized,
you not only learn the material better,
you also retain it better. So will I keep
using Labster? Of course I’ll keep using
Labster! I love it. And the students clearly
love it too.”
Paul Kasili
Bunker Hill Community College
Challenge #4: Teaching complex topics
Without active visual tools, it can be incredibly hard to explain to students the complexities of certain scientific concepts.
Through using a virtual lab, you are allowing students to visually experience complex concepts otherwise too abstract or complex to explore in a traditional course.
Labster offers countless animations that visualize life science down to the molecular level and make the abstract concepts more comprehensible.
At the same time, Labster makes it possible to conduct experiments that students wouldn’t usually be able to do. They can also take a look inside the machines and equipment they are using, to better understand how they work.
This gives the students a better all-round understanding of the concepts and techniques they are learning.
“My students find it difficult to
understand the sub-microscopic levels
in chemistry. Some of them don’t really
enjoy chemistry because it’s just too
abstract. So that’s why I wanted to use
simulations. Labster allows a dynamic
visualisation of chemical reactions so
that students can practice and better
understand these concepts, and
consequently enjoy the classes more.”
Sabine Matallana-Surget
Stirling University
Challenge #5: Making mistakes in high risk environments
Safety is of the utmost importance when working in a lab. But students tend to be unprepared for the experiments they are engaging in, and unaware of what can happen if something really goes wrong, putting them at risk when working in a real lab.
Virtual labs are safer for students to practice in than a real lab if the students are unfamiliar with the safety protocol. Virtual labs are similar to flight simulators that prepare future pilots for flying. In a lab simulator, the students can learn and test their skills, before entering a real lab.
Labster simulations include all the safety measures that you’ll typically find in a real lab. For example, students must always wear a lab coat and remember to put on safety goggles and gloves before performing dangerous experiments. The students cannot proceed in the virtual lab if they do not follow the safety protocol, meaning the students become familiar with these steps before entering a real lab.
If anything goes wrong, no physical harm is done and students have the opportunity to try again until they get it right. In some simulations, such as our Lab Safety simulation, the students are actually purposely set up for failure, in order to show them what goes wrong if they do not follow safety protocol.
“It is just as likely that students make
these mistakes in the virtual labs as it is
in a real lab. One key difference is that [in
the virtual lab] if they made an error, they
can simply go back in time and repeat
the experiment.”
Brian Harfe
University of Florida
Challenge #6: Ethics
For experiments that test or dissect parts of animals, there are many questions involving ethics that teachers must consider. Because it is unethical for students to experiment with certain animals, students rarely get the chance to learn about these experiments
Using a virtual lab completely eliminates ethical questions, as the animals that their students are dissecting and testing upon are all virtual.
For example, in the Experimental Design virtual lab simulation, students learn how to set up a scientific experiment. When designing the experiment, the students will have the option to perform experiments on animals. The virtual nature of this option eliminates the ethical issues that surround experimentation on real life animals.
The Regeneration Biology virtual lab offers a similar opportunity, In this lab, students learn why some wounds regenerate and others do not. As part of the simulation, you get the chance to virtually operate on axolotls and observe their regeneration process.
Challenge #7: Unprepared students and knowledge gaps
With little-to-no lab access, many students don’t feel prepared and confident enough to carry out experiments in a lab. At the same time, students often have different starting points, leaving knowledge gaps between students.
Students are often supposed to do pre-lab reading of the instructions for the experiment they’ll be doing that day. The reality is, assessed coursework and other responsibilities tend to take priority over this.
Students either start doing the experiment anyway, feeling a lack of confidence, or wasting valuable lab time sitting down and reading before they can get started.
But if used as preparation for the real lab, playing a Labster simulation is more fun than reading a protocol, and gives students a more visual, hands-on idea of what to do.
Many teachers use Labster as a pre-lab exercise to let them understand the equipment and procedures as well as the safety protocol before entering the lab. This can help level knowledge gaps between students.
Some teachers also use Labster as a post-lab exercise to reinforce the learnings. In virtual labs, students can also study the insides of machines and test what goes wrong if they mix the wrong reagents, giving them a deeper understanding of the experiments they are about to perform.
“We have HPLC machines, but when
they do the HPLC lab simulation as a
pre-lab, they know the components
and how it’s operated. So they come in
with a familiarity, and they’re not scared
of using this big machine for the first
time. This has worked really well in my
biotechnology classes, because we have
equipment such as bioreactors, plate
readers, HPLC, and PCR machines.
The virtual labs really help the students
become familiar with the material before
they engage in the class, and I think
that’s really, really useful.”
Paul Kasili
Bunker Hill Community College
Research on virtual lab effectiveness
Get an overview of the available research on virtual labs from our white paper
Throughout the whitepaper you’ll find published research studies evaluating the effectiveness of virtual labs, as well as first-hand case studies from independent educators who have used virtual labs in their courses.
The whitepaper covers:
- 5 challenges of today’s science education
- How virtual labs can improve learning and teaching
- Skepticism surrounding virtual labs
- Effectiveness of virtual labs: what does the research say?
“Labster publishes research in journals,
and that’s very rare in our experience.
Of the companies that can create
simulations, I don’t think there’s anyone
who has the same expertise in-house
that Labster has. I haven’t seen anyone
else working in the field have this level.”
Phillipos Savvides
Arizona State University
System Requirements, LMS Integration & Customer Support
What hardware and software do I need?
Labster can be used on any laptop, Chromebook, or desktop computer that meets our minimum system requirements. Labster simulations run directly in the browser, and no plugins or installations are required.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Processor: Dual core 2 GHz or higher
- Memory: 4 GB or more
- Graphic card: Intel HD 3000 / GeForce 6800 GT / Radeon X700 or higher
- OS: Latest version of Windows (64-bit) or Mac OS or ChromeOS
- Supported browsers: Latest versions of Firefox and Chrome
- A stable internet Connection
Note: we’re not yet compatible with mobile devices.
Simulation Loading Time
Labster simulations are typically only 30MB or less in size, however, internet/wifi speed may affect the time it takes to load a simulation.
Over the years, Labster has dramatically improved loading times. Typically, it only takes a few moments to load a simulation, but it is sometimes as long as a minute. A longer loading time may indicate that a system does not meet minimum system requirements.
Does Labster Integrate with my LMS?
Yes, Labster integrates with all major LMS & Google Classroom
Connecting Labster to your platform allows a personalized, flexible teaching experience that includes unlimited tracking and seamless integration with your gradebook.
Labster integrates with major learning management systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Canvas, D2L, edX, Moodle, Sakai, and Schoology via the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard.
We are also compatible with Google Classroom by sharing simulations with your course hosted on Google Classroom.
Live Customer Support
Labster offers live one-on-one customer support service. Our team of experts can advise on how to use virtual labs, how to integrate Labster simulations with your LMS system, and how to fix technical problems. You can reach our team via live chat. Our live chat service hours are Monday – Friday from 8 am – 1 am EST (GMT-4). This is the fastest and most direct way to get your question answered.
If you want to get help outside of our live hours, you can leave a message for us on the Messenger and we will respond to you when we return. In addition, you can always self-serve by searching Labster’s Help pages for clear answers, explanations, and quick how-to videos.
Pricing: How much does Labster cost?
Pricing for Labster virtual labs is openly available on our website. For larger schools or systems, we will provide a custom price quote. If you are a high school looking for free or discounted Labster access during the COVID-19 crisis, please contact us. We can get you set up quickly!
Talk with us
Want to take a deeper dive into a particular virtual lab simulation? Wondering which schools already use Labster? Virtual labs are what we do. They are not a side project or textbook add-on. Let us know if you’d like to chat and we’ll get right back to you.
