Delivering remote labs

With a significant proportion of student studying from home, Imperial staff members have engineered ways to ensure our students can meet their lab learning outcomes. A selection of examples can be found below.

Lab-in-a-box: delivering experiential practical learning remotely

Departments have skilfully put together "Lab-in-a-box" experiments which enable students at home to develop the same knowledge and skills as students on campus. Developing and sending out such boxes is no small task - you can hear more about the logistics associated with lab-in-a-box experiments by watching our November Teaching Fellow Lunch, linked to below.

Lab-in-a-box examples 1

Physics: transforming bulky experiments into portable labs

Physics students and staff developed 'Lab in a Box' experiments for home study. The experiments were designed to include a mixture of data analysis and practical hands-on work.

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Materials: creating lab-in-a-box projects for home learning

A staff-student team in the Department of Materials have created portable lab projects that can be posted to students learning from home. The box contains 36 items, including many of the items used by first-year undergraduate students while studying in the lab.

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Lab-in-a-box examples 2

Design Engineering: creating bespoke electronics kits

86 students were sent home electronics kits to support weekly lab activities as well as open-ended challenge builds. The module concluded with an online lab viva assessment, remote written exam, and challenge videos (with students submitting videos of their creations to demonstrate what they had achieved).

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Hearing from Teaching Fellows who developed a lab-in-a-box

At the November 2020 Teaching Fellow Lunch, Teaching Fellows from Mech Eng, Materials and Chemistry shared their experiences of putting together lab-in-a-box experiments, talking us through the practicalities of putting together and sending specialist items across the world.

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Live streaming lab sessions

By making use of a mixed reality headset (such as the HoloLens), a staff member, GTA or student can live-stream a lab session to students at home.  The sessions are set-up such that students at home can guide the experiment, directing the headset wearer on what to do next. 

remote-assist examples 1

Chem Eng: using the HoloLens to deliver remote labs

Students are able to participate in their chosen lab project remotely because the department are making use of three key pieces of technology: Microsoft Hololens headsets, controllable cameras and QR codes. Wearing a Hololens headset, a student or GTA connects to remote students via Teams and streams what they’re seeing in real time.

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Medicine: delivering live-remote clinical teaching

Medical students experience teaching via a video feed, and are able to witness and interact with real-time exchanges between clinicians and patients. Information, such as the patient’s drug charts and treatment information or radiographs, can also be superimposed as holograms onto the environment.

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Simulations and virtual lab environments

Simulations and virtual lab environments are often designed to complement practical-based labs. Below you'll find an example of a simulation experiment which used free open-source software, and a virtual lab environment which was designed from scratch by an Imperial student-staff team. A list of simulation/virtual lab tools to explore can be found on the Digital Learning Hub: Immersive Technology Initiative webpages.

virtual lab examples 1

Chemistry: molecular modelling using specialist software

Students learn how to build 3D representations of chemical structures using specialist software and how to analyse and measure properties of molecules using these tools. Students work through instructions provided in a Jupyter notebook, with support from demonstrators - provided in Microsoft Teams and in a Blackboard discussion forum.

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Physics: student-staff team develop a virtual lab

A team of six undergraduates worked with academics from the Department of Physics, the Digital Learning Hub (DLH) and the FoNS Ed Tech team to develop a digital diffraction lab. This lab allows students to set-up and calibrate their virtual equipment, thereby effecting the measurements they obtain.

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Remotely controlling campus equipment

By creating bespoke devices, or making use of remote plug-ins, Imperial staff members have engineered ways for students to control our campus equipment from home.  

remote control examples 1

Physics: remotely gathering campus lab data via an app

Teaching Lab Technician, Ivan Hermida Estornell, from the Department of Physics, has designed a bespoke combination of hardware and software that allows students on the second-year Interferometry course to gather their own data from a lab on campus, even if they’re studying remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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EEE: remotely programming and controlling drones on campus

This innovative laboratory experience enables students to program and control real drones live — from wherever they are in the world. The redesigned Control Systems module gives students a foundation in the theory and practice of modern control engineering, combined with a real-life application in a working drone.

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Virtual field trips

Departmental teaching teams have swiftly redesigned their field trip/course modules, offering virtual opportunities which feature group activities, lectures, fieldwork, and data driven projects to keep students learning.

virtual field trips examples 1

Earth Science: embarking on a simulated overseas trip

Petroleum Geoscience students embarked on a simulated overseas trip to the Pyrenees. As they would in a physical setting, the group stuck to a regimented schedule of 'field work' from 8am until 5pm, with lunch-breaks. At each 'stop' on the trip staff and Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) guided students in smaller groups using Microsoft Teams.

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Life Sciences: tracking bird song and coral reef diversity

143 first-year students in Life Sciences took a series of virtual field courses to investigate biodiversity. In their first field task, students recorded birdsong in their local neighbourhood, tracking variables such as the time of day and weather.

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