Marc LaBella, Ocean County College
Ocean County College has been partnered with Hands-On Labs since 2007, and in that time, HOL has been there for us with respect to our extensive online growth. HOL has created customized science lab kits for our increasing number of online science courses (including Forensic Science), and has responded to all of our requests as quickly as we ask for them. Their lab kits are an excellent complement to our courses. Their expertise in the Sciences and their customer service are second to none.
Rebecca Rowe, University of New England
I have been using custom Lab Paqs for my online General Chemistry I and II courses for over five years now. I feel the Lab Paqs align very well with the experiments performed in the traditional General Chemistry Laboratory environment. My students enjoy performing the experiments in their own homes rather than having to travel to campus to complete their lab course. One very interesting aspect of having my students use the Lab Paqs is they allow their young children to help with the experiments. This early introduction to math and science will hopefully produce the next generation of scientists.
Anne M. Loochtan, PhD, NOVA Medical Education Campus (MEC)
I have worked with Hands-On Labs with multiple colleges. They provide very robust materials and content suggestions for hybrid and completely online science courses. Hands-On Labs provides far more than we could even conceptualize and made the lab experiences very rigorous.
Whitney Keaton, Lord Fairfax Community College
The chemistry faculty and I were asked by the community college I work for to find a way to teach General Chemistry labs online. After a great deal of research, we realized that virtual labs would not fit the bill for our students. We found Hands-On Labs and their kits worked perfectly for us. HOL worked closely with us to design a kit that allowed our online students to have an equivalent experience to our face-to-face students. The kits use real lab equipment that the students need to be comfortable using and the labs are very interesting and challenging. I am able to communicate with my students via email, discussion board, and in my online office hours to help them with any questions that arise about the labs and they seem to have a great understanding of the lab material they are working on. The students are able to work at their own pace and at a time and location that is convenient for them. It has been a win-win for everyone!
Shay Bean, Chattanooga State Community College
I have been using Hands-On Labs in our online General Chemistry course for two semesters and I am very happy with both the product and the support! Hands-On Labs is great! The lab kits and experimental procedures provided are very similar to our on-ground General Chemistry labs. Our online students love getting to perform hands-on chemistry experiments at home, and I love that they are getting an experience that is very similar to our on-ground students. The product works well in our course, and the support we receive is outstanding!
Dubear Kroening, University of Wisconsin
Hands-On Labs has been instrumental in providing the supplies and equipment needed for our introductory biology online course to help make sure that our students are getting a quality laboratory experience. HOL has been extremely helpful whenever we have had questions and has been willing to work with us to provide affordable and rigorous lab experiments. We look forward to working with HOL on more labs in the future!
Milton Tignor, Haywood Community College
I had a unique opportunity to observe students utilizing the HOL labs firsthand. Last semester we had a small section of Human Concepts of Biology. Rather than do an entire lab prep for the small enrollment course, I requested permission to have the students use HOL labs. The labs were a big hit. Students worked through the online exercises, the hands-on-lab portion, and the assessment with very little assistance. It was reassuring to observe how easily students could follow the directions and work through the laboratory exercises on their own. The materials are clearly designed with students in mind.
The kits are very complete. I have taught online biology courses before and a big concern I have always had was consistency of home-based labs. Usually, the student procures nearly all of the materials in the kitchen. Sometimes students have to be very creative to find everything to complete a lab. The HOL kits include the items and instrumentation necessary to ensure that students have the best chance at a successful experiment. For example, a small digital scale, graduated cylinders, beakers, and lab-appropriate volumes of reagents were all part of the custom kit I ordered. Students are also provided with a concise list of materials that they need to assemble from home before beginning the lab. Usually these are expendable supplies such as plant materials.
The folks at HOL went out of their way to help me customize even this small order. I loved being able to select only the labs I wanted to include in the course.
Jocelyn Cash, Central Piedmont Community College
Just wanted to let you know how happy we are with Hands on labs – students tell me that the dissection instructions are easy to follow and that the pictures are very helpful. (They don’t generally like dissecting the cats, but find the instructions helpful) For myself, I would like to comment on how clever some of the lab activities are. For example, I really like the muscle activity with the rubber bands and the little skeleton, looking at range of motion of joints. Genius!
Tracy Stepanyan, Eastern Kentucky University
We have many students, both traditional and non-traditional, that benefit from online courses. By utilizing the labpaqs offered by Hands-On Labs we have been able to take introductory biology into people’s homes. Furthermore, the customer service that my students and I receive has been exemplary.
Stan Racis, Gwynedd Mercy University
I remain impressed with not only the professionalism and helpfulness of all I have encountered at Hands-On Labs, but also with the thoughtful experimental and internet-friendly design. I especially find the procedures (at least in Chemistry and Microbiology) highlighting those sensory experiences (sight, sound, smell, touch) that aid the student in terms of both understanding and association/memory in ways a fully virtual offering can’t simulate. I look forward to what the team at Hands on Labs will be coming up with to further enhance the student experience.
Vicki Audia, Blue Ridge Community College
As enrollment in chemistry classes grew, I was searching for an effective method to deliver a positive laboratory experience to an ever-increasing number of students in three levels of chemistry. Hands-on Labs delivers quality LabPaqs with online support to students. Hands-on Labs has excellent support for instructors. Support services specialists and account representatives are always willing to provide any information or special assistance to me. I am continuing to use Hands-on Labs products this next academic year. Students gain a better understanding of the scientific method as they follow the experimental procedures from HOL Sciences. Our web-based chemistry courses have benefited from our partnership with Hands-on Labs.
Geralyn Caplan, Owensboro Community & Technical College
I was told that it would be impossible to teach a quality lab course online. I hate being told what I can and cannot accomplish. With Hands-On Labs, I have not only built one outstanding anatomy and physiology lab experience, I have built a number of successful courses. The students that are online using Hands-On Labs science lab kits are much more engaged than my on-campus students. My retention is much higher in my online courses and the students go on to successfully complete programs in nursing, radiography, PTA, and other allied health fields. Hand-On Labs not only supplies high quality lab-grade material, they are there to answer questions and solve problems. I cannot ask for better service or supplies.