4.1 - Add Virtual Simulations to Your Course with Labster

What is Labster Links to an external site.?

Labster Introduction Video (3 minutes)

Labster has been made available for the time being for the California Community Colleges. For more information, please visit the Labster California Community Colleges Website Links to an external site..

How to Import Labster Simulation Assignments into Your Canvas Course

Add Labster to Canvas Instructor Guide Video (2 minutes)

How to Add Labster Simulations to Your Course Course Written Guide Links to an external site.

The Labster simulations that you will import into your course will come over as Canvas assignments. These assignments include pre-lab foundational material, learning objectives, an outline of what students will do, and a credentialed link that brings students directly into the Labster site.

NOTE: Once you've imported your Labster simulation assignments, its a good idea to access one of them to see what students will be seeing. While you're there click on Dashboard in the menu in the upper left corner Links to an external site. to go over your Labster settings.

Access Labster Simulation Assignments Here Links to an external site.

Labster Tips from Nick DeMello, a Cañada Chemistry Instructor

  • After you've imported these simulation assignments into your course, remember to publish them and add them to your module structure to incorporate them into your curriculum and make them visible to students.
  • It might help to use module lock dates and/or available from dates to make sure students are participating in simulations when they are ready.
  • It may be valuable to try the simulations yourself, to better align the assignment learning objectives with your syllabus and be prepared for functional questions students may ask.
  • Experiments are limited.  The same experiment may appear in more than one content area and Labster may be used beyond this semester.  You may want to coordinate with other instructors in your department so experiments are not added to both of two sequential classes.
  • Instructors who want to extend the virtual lab experience beyond the experiments available on Labster may want to explore other virtual equipment and build their own lab experiences.  Some curated Open Educational Resource (OER) collections of simulated lab equipment can be found PhET Links to an external site. and MERLOT Links to an external site..

 

Additional Resources and Support