ASE Annual Conference 2018

The internet of field and laboratory things: Real data, authentic interfaces for practical work
Please be aware that the work described in this talk is not about replacing field trips and laboratories with something less expensive and less exciting. Rather it is about using the affordances of the internet to take people closer than they might easily get to the exciting discovery opportunities of interactive learning.
The OpenSTEM Labs are the digital equivalent of a field study centre and a block of teaching labs. We began with onscreen activities such as virtual microscopes and other interactive tools linked to real data. Recent investment has allowed the incorporation of facilities for online remote access to real instruments: optical and electron microscopes; analytical tools such as spectrophotometry, FTIR, HPLC, GCMS; a planetary-rover training-landscape; immersive virtual reality. These form a key part of the practical facilities that are now accessible to our distance learning students, via the internet and 24/7. The OpenSTEM Labs enable us to be more inclusive and more accessible than is conventionally the case. In addition to describing how the OpenSTEM Labs are used across all of STEM, including by students of Earth Sciences, this talk will propose ways which we might enable other educators to make use of our facilities. In the presentation several remotely located instruments will be operated and other on screen devices for interactive learning will be demonstrated.
The OpenSTEM Labs are a key feature of the OU's curriculum in several STEM disciplines. It is based on an original initiative with the Wolfson Foundation (2012) to establish the OpenScience Laboratory. In 2015 further investment from a HEFCE STEM capital investment enabled us to expand the laboratory to cover a wide range of disciplines including Engineering, with a new OpenNetworking Lab to be added in the near future. The OpenSTEM Labs are contributing to a HEFCE funded project "Embedding and Sustaining Inclusive STEM Practices" (in collaboration with Earth Science colleagues in Plymouth and Leeds).