Learning through distance, how do classes with lab work, say Biology? Is this a class that you should take in person at a local C.C. and then transfer credit to the distance school you've chosen? thx!
Hi Annabelle, A few options may be available... 1. Contact the local C.C. department head and see if paid arrangements can be made to use the lab facilities. 2. Contact the local C.C to see if a similar course has a lab offered and sign-up for the lab section only. Depending upon the program involved, some purveyors of interactive video education supply hands-on lab kits to augment course work. These kits come complete with lab manuals and assignments. I used to deal with "Applied Learning International" in Napierville, Illinois but I think by now they have been bought and sold a few times over. I haven't been a corporate trainer for the last 8 years and when I was teaching at a community college we used kits. Best wishes in your future endeavors... Dick
If you work in a lab environment, you may be able to do labs under supervision of a co-worker, with approval of the university. We had an employee do a Lehigh MS in biochemistry, with hands-on labs here. Other universities (e.g. Athabasca) will aggregate lab work into an intensive short period of residence. Let us know what you work out, because I think this is a challenge for many.
This is going to depend almost entirely upon the requirements of the program in which you intend to enroll. If you have a non-science major and require a single laboratory science course to meet core and/or distribution requirements, you may be able to find a distance course that would be acceptable. Correspondence courses do exist that have labs, primarily in the fields of astronomy, geology, and earth sciences. Science and technology program majors generally require more than one lab science course, likely requiring at least one at the upper division level. For the upper division courses even community colleges won't be of benefit. Whatever you elect to do, be sure to ascertain in advance that the course you have selected is acceptable to the school to which you will be transferring the credits. For a description of an interesting d/l course in general biology for non-science majors click here and read about BIOL 101 and BIOL 105 at Washington State University. They'll even rent you a microscope. ------------------ Bill Gossett
