Attendees: Steve Peters (GAZeL & ATIC), Nan Williams (AzTEA), Henry Goldberg (ATIC), Dale Johnson (ASU), David Stong (GAZeL), Philippos Savvides (ASU), Angie Odom (Labster), Alan Kost (UofA) and Oris Friesen (GAZeL & ATIC).
Summary: Following a round of self introductions, Steve Peters opened the meeting with a welcome statement on behalf of GAZeL and the Innovative Learning Collaborative and noted that Labster is the Virtual Laboratory Simulation Education Group based in Denmark,
The purpose of the meeting was to explore interest, feasibility and a strategy to develop a statewide partnership and funding mechanism with Labster and K-12 schools, universities and community colleges to provide appropriate Labster modules for all schools in Arizona for free or low cost. A demonstration project in some rural Arizona schools is a likely priority.
Oris Friesen explained why we are interested in such an activity. One reason is that virtual laboratory simulations can dramatically enhance student learning in science and STEM education when used to complement or even replace traditional teaching methods. Another reason is that virtual labs reduce the cost of investing in physical laboratories and they are well suited to online curricula.
Steve reviewed some of the previous engagement between the GAZeL Innovative Learning Collaborative with Labster including the 2015 Forum where Maaroof Fakhri of Labster was a presenter, a meeting with Maaroof and others at ASU, and subsequent meetings with Angie Odom. The Arizona Telecommunications & information Council (ATIC) is now particularly interested in partnering with GAZeL and AzTEA on promoting the deployment of Labster in rural schools/colleges, and so a partnership has been established to re-engage with Labster on the potential for demonstrating and funding Labster use in Arizona educational institutions.
Henry Goldberg then spoke about ATIC’s mission including its focus on making broadband available to all schools in Arizona, especially in the rural areas. This objective dovetails nicely with efforts to make Labster virtual online labs possible for rural schools and community colleges.
Steve outlined the following possible scenario: We could convene educators and organizations in Arizona to determine what modules we would be interested in, what modules Labster already has or would need to be modified, and or/what new modules we might want to have developed. Obviously a key question is how much it might cost and how would we fund it. We are envisioning a possible funding strategy, and maybe a consortium, where universities, community colleges and K-12 school districts might all contribute some level of funding. We would also explore other funding such as foundations, government grants, corporate contributions, and of course we want to know what partnership opportunities and funding Labster might be able to bring to the table.
Angie Odom, Labster’s Regional Customer Development Manager, then provided a brief overview and update on Labster activities. She said that numerous biology, chemistry, biochemistry, etc. simulations are accessible on the labster.com website. There are also a number of simulations suitable for high schools. She said that currently the development pipeline at Labster is full for the next year to year and a half, so it would be difficult for Labster to do any custom development. Labster is planning to modularize the simulations to make them more usable. They are also planning to add virtual reality to some simulations.
In order to get a demo account to interact with any of the simulations, just send Angie an email request.
Dale Johnson and Philippos Savvides at ASU have used Labster in biology classes for a year. BIO181 and BIO182 classes have been using Labster modules and ASU hopes to have a complete online course in biology in the near future that includes Labster simulations. This is the beginning of potentially integrating virtual labs in all their science courses.
Angie noted that an instructor at the UofA is interested in using Labster simulations for food safety classes and Pima Community College may test simulation models for a biochemistry course in spring 2018.
There are some K-12 schools in other states, such as a Florida charter school, that use Labster simulations. Angie will send us a list of those schools and check into whether information can be shared about these schools’ experiences with Labster.
Regarding funding. Labster is not considering any revenue sharing at the time being. Labster does have a grant that allows for partnerships but Angie does not have any details yet. Labster would need to know how many educational institutions/students would be involved to estimate costs and there could possibly be one site license for the consortium.
Next steps:
Summary: Following a round of self introductions, Steve Peters opened the meeting with a welcome statement on behalf of GAZeL and the Innovative Learning Collaborative and noted that Labster is the Virtual Laboratory Simulation Education Group based in Denmark,
The purpose of the meeting was to explore interest, feasibility and a strategy to develop a statewide partnership and funding mechanism with Labster and K-12 schools, universities and community colleges to provide appropriate Labster modules for all schools in Arizona for free or low cost. A demonstration project in some rural Arizona schools is a likely priority.
Oris Friesen explained why we are interested in such an activity. One reason is that virtual laboratory simulations can dramatically enhance student learning in science and STEM education when used to complement or even replace traditional teaching methods. Another reason is that virtual labs reduce the cost of investing in physical laboratories and they are well suited to online curricula.
Steve reviewed some of the previous engagement between the GAZeL Innovative Learning Collaborative with Labster including the 2015 Forum where Maaroof Fakhri of Labster was a presenter, a meeting with Maaroof and others at ASU, and subsequent meetings with Angie Odom. The Arizona Telecommunications & information Council (ATIC) is now particularly interested in partnering with GAZeL and AzTEA on promoting the deployment of Labster in rural schools/colleges, and so a partnership has been established to re-engage with Labster on the potential for demonstrating and funding Labster use in Arizona educational institutions.
Henry Goldberg then spoke about ATIC’s mission including its focus on making broadband available to all schools in Arizona, especially in the rural areas. This objective dovetails nicely with efforts to make Labster virtual online labs possible for rural schools and community colleges.
Steve outlined the following possible scenario: We could convene educators and organizations in Arizona to determine what modules we would be interested in, what modules Labster already has or would need to be modified, and or/what new modules we might want to have developed. Obviously a key question is how much it might cost and how would we fund it. We are envisioning a possible funding strategy, and maybe a consortium, where universities, community colleges and K-12 school districts might all contribute some level of funding. We would also explore other funding such as foundations, government grants, corporate contributions, and of course we want to know what partnership opportunities and funding Labster might be able to bring to the table.
Angie Odom, Labster’s Regional Customer Development Manager, then provided a brief overview and update on Labster activities. She said that numerous biology, chemistry, biochemistry, etc. simulations are accessible on the labster.com website. There are also a number of simulations suitable for high schools. She said that currently the development pipeline at Labster is full for the next year to year and a half, so it would be difficult for Labster to do any custom development. Labster is planning to modularize the simulations to make them more usable. They are also planning to add virtual reality to some simulations.
In order to get a demo account to interact with any of the simulations, just send Angie an email request.
Dale Johnson and Philippos Savvides at ASU have used Labster in biology classes for a year. BIO181 and BIO182 classes have been using Labster modules and ASU hopes to have a complete online course in biology in the near future that includes Labster simulations. This is the beginning of potentially integrating virtual labs in all their science courses.
Angie noted that an instructor at the UofA is interested in using Labster simulations for food safety classes and Pima Community College may test simulation models for a biochemistry course in spring 2018.
There are some K-12 schools in other states, such as a Florida charter school, that use Labster simulations. Angie will send us a list of those schools and check into whether information can be shared about these schools’ experiences with Labster.
Regarding funding. Labster is not considering any revenue sharing at the time being. Labster does have a grant that allows for partnerships but Angie does not have any details yet. Labster would need to know how many educational institutions/students would be involved to estimate costs and there could possibly be one site license for the consortium.
Next steps:
- Nan suggested that we involve some high school science teachers/groups to explore this and consider what modules would meet their requirements. Nan will contact appropriate people.
- All attendees should have demo accounts to explore the existing simulations. Angie will set up those accounts. Angie will also e-mail the list of simulations available.
- Philippos says we should meet with ASU to discuss possible areas of collaboration. ASU would likely also be interested in high school students being prepared to use this virtual lab technology when they attend university.
- Steve will talk to key individuals at the UofA and NAU.
- We need to consider funding possibilities, such as a consortium or partnerships or grants. We should explore possibilities of funding from Science Foundation of Arizona and Helios Foundation.
- Steve, Oris, Angie and Henry will prepare a draft document about the project and planned actions.