Efficacy of Online Laboratory Exercises in Achieving Undergraduate Learning Outcomes in Introductory Astronomy Classes

Fully online courses and degree programs are popular with students today. It is important that these courses provide the same rigor and value of a traditional learning experience in a face-to-face classroom in order to ensure mastery of concepts and learning objectives. Online classes typically have suffered due to a lack of hands-on experiences for the students. One remedy to this is to include simulated hands-on work in the course through online laboratory exercises. The belief is that these simulated labs allow students to actively engage in the learning process, thus providing a traditional learning component in the online classroom. This research investigates the effectiveness of online laboratory exercises in enhancing student understanding of core concepts taught in introductory astronomy courses. Identical classes, one with and one without an online laboratory component, were compared using pre- and post-quizzes to compare the percent gain in content mastery between the classes. A Likert-style end survey was used to quantify student perception of the laboratory component. This study showed that students in the classes with online laboratory exercises demonstrated significant gains in scores compared to those without the labs. Further, the study indicated that different styles of online labs vary significantly in effectiveness and that labs with a component of realism result in the highest gains in student learning. Finally, the survey results showed that students believed the labs helped them to learn the course material and that the labs were an effective "hands-on" experience in an online environment.