Science Course, Lab Options Vary in Online Bachelor's Programs

Peggy Wall, an online bachelor's student in the for-profit American Public University System, had a fetal pig delivered to her doorstep last year, along with a dead frog and a grasshopper, among other animals.

The reason: The 51-year-old studies the natural sciences remotely from Texas and needed to perform dissections for her biology lab requirements. She followed written and photographed instructions from her professors.

That's one way undergraduate science courses are adapting to online education, a convenient and flexible path to a degree for busy working adults.

While the natural sciences have been slower than many other disciplines to embrace online learning, experts say, that's starting to change at some colleges and universities, particularly for nonscience majors.

Still, some faculty and graduate program admissions officers are hesitant about online science courses. Many experts suggest that premedical students avoid them, for example, because some programs won't accept them as prerequisites.

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"Science is a really, really old discipline, and it's basically been taught in the same way since its inception," says Danny Welsch, the American Public University System's associate dean for the school of science, technology, engineering and math. "Now with the advent of online learning and a lot of the technological tools available, we're kind of turning that on its head."

Though the concept of online undergraduate natural science courses is still in its infancy, schools such as UF Online, the undergraduate arm of the University of Florida; Oregon State University's Ecampus; and the University of North Dakota have launched programs in the discipline.

In online science classes, professors typically teach in ways similar to other disciplines: Students might interact on discussion boards, view live or pre-recorded lectures and complete readings with quizzes.

However, some professors are creative with the virtual format. In his geology class, for example, Welsch brings a camera with him outside and records any interesting rocks or minerals he encounters, and then shares his videos with the class.

But experts say what makes online undergraduate science courses unique are the lab components, designed to be convenient for the online bachelor's student yet in many cases, lacking direct assistance and supervision from professors.

Students might view virtual simulations and complete online activities at home, or conduct experiments remotely with lab kits. Some online bachelor's students attend labs at a local college or university, come to campus for a summer session or study and analyze nature in their community. Several universities combine different types of labs depending on the course material.

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Virtual labs allow students to redo experiments, says Emma Brady, lead instructional designer for the UF Online STEM team. In a UF Online biology lab, students perform a genetic screening of a nematode to identify genes that may cause disease when mutated.

"The lab can be repeated even if you make mistakes, like kill all your worms," she says. "Because the lab environment is now really safe, because it's virtual, we can use a carcinogen that creates that mutation."

"We're working on a chemistry lab right now that looks like a video game," says Welsch from APUS. "In a simulated way, in a virtualized way, students do all the same things that you'd do in a regular chemistry lab."

Lab kits also have both benefits and drawbacks. Wall, the APUS student, says her lab experiences were very hands-on because she performed dissections and experiments from home entirely on her own, submitting photos to her professor throughout.

Still, these kits, created by companies, plus shipping can be expensive for students, and damaged items are sometimes a concern, says Chris Felege, who teaches an online biology course and lab for non-majors at the University of North Dakota.

Cassie Daddino, a online bachelor's student at UND studying social work and psychology, says she doesn't recommend online classes for science majors, though for her it was a good option. She took biology online for a general education requirement.

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"I don't think virtual labs help you see the experiment that you're doing," says the 39-year-old. "You're more playing it out in your head and coming up with an educated guess."

And since some medical schools won't accept online courses for prerequisites, students should check admissions requirements at potential programs beforehand, though online courses usually aren't clearly identified on a transcript, says Carolyn Kelly, associate dean for admissions and student affairs at the University of California--San Diego School of Medicine.

She suggests prospective online students use the Medical School Admissions Requirements resource on the Association of American Medical Colleges' website.

"Sometimes, change happens more slowly," she says. "But my guess is that what you'll start to see is more and more schools realizing that there's more and more online coursework out there; that for many students who participate in that, they may well be learning the material just as well as through conventional courses."

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Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.