As many Universities need to quickly move their learning online during the current coronavirus crisis, we have received many questions about our remote and virtual laboratories. This blog collects together useful information about our OpenSTEM Labs and provides links to online resources.<\/p>\n
This blog is a working document and was last updated on 20th November 2020<\/em><\/p>\n What are the OpenSTEM Labs?<\/strong><\/p>\n The OpenSTEM Labs are the Open University’s remote and virtual laboratories that we use to deliver practical, hands-on learning to our distance learning students.\u00a0 The mission of the OpenSTEM Labs is to give students access to real experiments, using real data and in real time, wherever they are. We provide a mix of remote experiments that allow students to control real equipment remotely, and onscreen (or virtual) experiments where students engage with real data in a simulated environment. Students interact with the all experiments via a web browser. The OpenSTEM Labs have been developed over the last 10 years with support from the Wolfson Foundation and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We have developed more than 100 experiments in subjects from life sciences and chemistry, to physics, astronomy and engineering.<\/p>\n You can read more about the OpenSTEM Labs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Can I use OpenSTEM Labs activities with my students?<\/strong><\/p>\n Free Onscreen activities:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We provide free access to some of our onscreen activities. These activities allow students to engage with real data, but do not rely on physical equipment and are scalable to large numbers of users. Click on this link<\/a> to register for an account that will allow you to try our free activities including:<\/p>\n Licenced Onscreen\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>activities:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n A limited set of OpenSTEM Labs activities are now available for licenced use by other Universities.\u00a0 The initial offering focusses on\u00a0Health Science, Chemistry and Biology and we hope to add more activities soon.<\/span><\/p>\n Find out more about how you can use OpenSTEM Labs activities with your students at\u00a0http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/business\/education-partnerships\/openstem-labs<\/a><\/p>\n Free trial of remote laboratories:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n We are currently offering free access to some of our remote laboratory experiments.\u00a0 These experiments use real equipment located in our labs, and therefore have limited capacity that is managed using a booking system. You can visit a showcase page to access our free remote laboratory experiments here<\/a>. The showcase page provides short taster exercises and instructions on how to register for a free account to try the experiments for yourself.\u00a0 The experiments available on the showcase page are:<\/p>\n Access to these remote experiments\u00a0is currently free, but is subject\u00a0to availability. Access will be reviewed after 31st<\/sup> December 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n Working with us<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are interested in using any of our remote laboratories or associated teaching materials in your courses in the future, please get in touch at openstemlabs@open.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remote facilities include:<\/p>\n Further information<\/strong><\/p>\n You can find more detailed information about our pedagogy and the development of some of the OpenSTEM Labs activities in the following papers:<\/p>\n Brodeur, Marcus; Minocha, Shailey; Kolb, Ulrich and Braithwaite, Nicholas (2015). Designing online laboratories for optimal effectiveness: undergraduate priorities for authenticity, sociability and metafunctionality. In: 15th International Conference on Technology, Policy and Innovation, 17-19 Jun 2015, The Open University, Milton Keynes.<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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