Off-campus but hands-on: Mail out practicals with synchronous online activities during COVID-19

Abstract

This paper discusses alternatives to on-campus teaching laboratories, to allow for hands-on learning for remote students. Wholly online practical equivalents have become increasingly popular post-COVID (online simulations or processing experimental data only) which can offer lower overheads and easy scale-up, but often miss hands-on learning outcomes. This paper reviews opportunities for mail-out practicals, where the equipment is delivered to students’ homes, combined with live synchronous learning activities via video streaming or online software. The combination of mail-out experimental kits plus synchronous interactive learning activities creates a host of new opportunities for teaching ..