What is the purpose of doing the class and lab online? Who are the students
that you will serve with this class? If they are mostly locals, then they
may be willing (or even prefer) to come to campus for lab. If they are
spread out and coming to campus is simply not possible (they must come
significantly more than the standard commute for your students), then maybe
there are some workable options. Is there anyone else in your area doing
this at a distance that you can talk with, or are you plowing new ground?
Options for lab
1. They could come for a couple of Saturday sessions to collect data and
then spend several weeks analyzing and discussing the data online followed
by writing a lab report.
2. You could arrange for them to hook up with their local high school to
perform some experiments there and then discuss the results online and
submit a report. This would take some doing, however. I would recommend
that if you do this then you should require that the student provide a
contact person for you to speak with from that local high school. I would
also send a letter of introduction before you offer the course to the high
schools in your service area to let them know what you are doing. You may
get a volunteer to help out.
3. You can develop a kit or look into having one developed by a supplier
(check with the catalogs to see if there is anything they already have that
will work). You want to try to avoid having to put it together yourself as
that can get old if your class should become popular (imagine having to
assemble 30 or more kits each term). You might also look at the possibility
of students renting the kits instead of buying them. They get a partial
refund for returning a complete kit minus the disposables.
I won't tell you that this is impossible. With a little creativity, you can
develop a decent class. However, I will tell you that it is not ideal and
those who are encouraging (pushing) you in this direction need to understand
that. You also need to make sure that they are aware of what normal drop
out rates will be for this type of class. This isn't a humanities class
where they just read some things and write their papers at home . This is a
rough class to begin with and we are making it that much more difficult by
not meeting the students face to face.
Oh--and before you teach this class, I would recommend using the online
materials you develop with your face-to-face students. Get them to test it
to be sure it makes sense before you have to rely on this being the primary
mode of communication. You can have them write some segments of the course
and definitions and other items. Also, I would recommend taking an online
course yourself to see how it works and feels. There are several very good
ones out there.