Abstract: To reduce the gap in online student completion rates, an online virtual lab instead of a home lab kit. The intervention in this study was Labster, an online virtual lab, which was employed to potentially alleviate deficits in student completion rates in online learning sections of Microbiology BIO 205. The research question for this study was: Did Labster impact student completion rates in online classes in BIO 205?
Description: Pierce, Kirkwood-Watts, and Bryce researched a historic gap in student completion rates between online learners and in-person/hyflex learners in a microbiology course at Yavapai College, a rural community college in the United States. After introducing Labster, researchers found that students were equally likely to be successful regardless of instructional modality (online, in-person/hyflex). The Labster intervention accompanied a statistically significant 16% increase in completion rates in online classes.
Full citation: Pierce, R., Kirkwood-Watts, D. & Bryce, R. (2025). Reducing the gap in online student completion rates with a virtual lab: A case study. In R. Jake Cohen (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1391-1395). Orlando, FL, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved from: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/225683.
