Highlighting the Success of LabArchives Lab Builder

LabArchives’ Lab Builder content is currently used in 340 courses by nearly 13,500 students.  Since its launch at the end of 2019, the content contained in the curated collection of STEM course labs, protocols, course packs and texts has been used 1,765,000 times by students at the direction of their professors. There are more than 500 different course material entries in the collection. Instructors and teaching assistants love using the LabArchives ELN for Education because it holds everything they need all in one place, engages students, and provides them with the ability to update course materials in minutes 24 / 7 / 365.

Lab Builder, included with LabArchives ELN for Education, was launched in the Fall of 2019 with the goal of providing quality open source lab course content for instructors and their students. These resources are quick and easy to set up and use, in class or online.

Lab Builder is an easy way to engage students in your lesson plans by making them accessible and interactive. Lab Builder is included with all instructor-level access to LabArchives ELN for Education. 

The curated collection of 500+ lab activities, protocols, course-packs, and textbooks is available as an open resource for any LabArchives instructor to use in their course at no additional charge. Benefits and ease of use features of Lab Builder and LabArchives ELN for Education include:

• All of the content is organized by discipline and sub-discipline. 
• All content items have a standard structure and presentation that includes instructional level, teaching points, time to complete, recommended additional resources such as videos, presentations, and notes, and more. 
• Instructors can use all or any part of any of the content. 
• Instructors can customize and edit the material for their course 24 / 7 / 365 in minutes. 
• Integrations include Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, MS Office, Google Docs, SnapGene, Vernier, and ChemDoodle.
• LabArchives ELN for Education includes a course administration module, which makes adding students, grading, and content control a breeze.
• Multiple level rights management (Instructor, TA, Student)
• Instructor Control over course content
• Courses can scale from a few students to several thousand.
• Combines the benefits of a lab notebook and lab manual at a fraction of the cost.

 A 2017 study for ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) found that using an electronic lab notebook rather than a paper notebook was an effective way to engage students in “practicing and improving their ability to communicate effectively.” One way LabArchives ELN enhances the learning experience is by enabling students to add pictures and videos to their notes. This significantly reduces the time it takes to describe and copy things like lab setup. The study also showed that there was an increased amount of time outside of lab hours where students were engaged in using their ELNs and updating them.

ELNs grant students and instructors incredible flexibility and customization that far exceed anything available to a student using a standard paper notebook. LabArchives ELN and Lab Builder present the ideal solution, blending a robust library of free course content with flexible and engaging tools. LabArchives is the most used ELN worldwide, with more than 610,000 users managing their research data on the platform.