In the LTC Lunch: Making Learning Visible with Electronic Portfolios (Jan. 19, 2016), Deborah Gross, Professor of Chemistry, talked about how Lab Archives captures the learning that her students are doing in her lab courses.
*Deborah’s presentation begins at 14:30
LabArchives (LA) is an electronic notebook software that comes in two versions: classroom and professional. The classroom version allows you to manage a set of individual notebooks for each student, replacing the traditional lab notebook; the professional version is great for organizing your professional research and involving collaborators.
Despite its name and logo, which features iconic chemistry vessels, please don’t think LA isn’t for you or your students if you aren’t in the Natural Sciences! It really is an electronic notebook and not a lab notebook. In fact, we’ve heard from our LA rep that staff working in the area of facilities find LA very helpful.
Based on the testing that Deborah and other Carleton faculty participated in, the College has purchased access to both the Professional and Classroom editions for anyone on campus. In a sense, we’re piloting a site license for LA to see if enough folks will use it to warrant continuing in this way (or, if buying on a case by case basis is more prudent).
Our AT [un]workshop on Wednesday October 26, Electronic Notebooks for Classroom & Research: Exploring LabArchives, is a great chance to learn more about LA. You may discover, as Deborah did, that in addition to making student learning more visible both to external audiences and to the students, electronic portfolios like LA can solve logistical problems. For example, in chemistry, LA eliminated the logjam that occurs when students have turned in their physical notebooks to be graded and then don’t have them to prep for the upcoming lab, or how to deal with group projects that are recorded only in one notebook. You also may discover how an electronic notebook might help you capture, archive, and curate your own work.
We also have the following hands on training sessions coming up:
Thursday, October 20 at 3:15 – 4:00 pm in the Weitz Center, Room 027
Tuesday, November 1 at 3:15 – 4:00 pm in the Weitz Center, Room 027
Questions? Contact Randy Hoffner, rhoffner@carleton.edu
Add a comment