Go-Lab MOOC for teachers

The Go-Lab Massive Open Online Course “Using online labs in the classroom: an introductory course for teachers” has been developed to assist science teachers and any people interested in science in incorporating the use of online labs and supportive inquiry learning apps into their teaching and learning activities. After completing this course, you will know how to find inquiry learning tools fitting your teaching and learning goals and how to create complete learning scenarios suitable for different subject domains and topics. In this course, you will learn how to plan your inquiry learning activities and how to implement your pedagogic scenarios in a digital learning environment. We will introduce you to the Go-Lab Portal, where you can find appropriate tools and create your own virtual learning spaces. Furthermore, several scenarios of using various online labs and tools are explained in this course.

The Go-Lab MOOC is offered online at the OpenCourseWorld platform (www.opencourseworld.de), so you can learn when and wherever you want. The content of the course will be available beyond the planned course duration of six weeks, so you will be able to take your time to work through the materials. In this course, you will find video lectures and demo videos, text tutorials and useful links, as well as practical exercises with online labs giving you the possibility to gain hands-on experience and directly apply gained knowledge in your teaching practice.

In order to participate in the course, you will need an account at the OpenCourseWorld platform (register here) and in the Go-Lab Portal (register here, if you don’t have one). The course will be offered several times a year and is free of charge.

The course has already been offered three times at the OpenCourseWorld platform. Due to high demand, the course has started again from September 19th - October 31st, 2016. You can find first information about the course on the course page, registration is open until Monday, 31.10.16! Be prepared and become a part of the Go-Lab experience!

Below you can find an overview of the course modules.

Module 1: Inquiry learning with online labs
Experts:
Prof. Dr. Ton de Jong (University of Twente, Netherlands), Dr. Sofoklis Sotiriou (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece)
Learning objectives:
This module gives you an introduction to the inquiry-based science education in schools. Main concepts of inquiry learning, as well as its benefits and challenges for school education are presented. The module also gives insight into the teaching practice using innovative tools and future trends in science education.
Module 2: Creating an inquiry-oriented lesson plan
Experts:
Eleftheria Tsourlidaki (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece)
Learning objectives:
In this module, you will learn how to incorporate the use of online labs in your classroom activities, how to create lesson plans containing inquiry-based exercises, and how to implement these lesson plans in web-based Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs). This module makes you familiar with Go-Lab Inquiry Learning Cycle describing five phases of the inquiry learning process, as well as with a basic pedagogic scenario, which you can use to create your lesson plan. Furthermore, it explains how to start creating an ILS in the Go-Lab Portal.
Module 3: Creating an Inquiry Learning Space
Experts:
Dr. Adrian Holzer and Dr. Sten Govaerts (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
Learning objectives:
This module introduces you to the Go-Lab Authoring Platform Graasp and gives you a step-by-step guidance in creating your Inquiry Learning Space (ILS). This module contains multiple demo videos explaining both the basics of the ILS creation process as well as the advanced functionalities of the Go-Lab Portal. After studying this module, you will be able to create your own ILSs using sophisticated features of the Portal and publish them in the Go-Lab Repository to make available for your colleagues.
Module 4: Exploring the Sun
Experts:
Rosa Doran (Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia, Portugal), Prof. João Fernandes and Dr. Telma Esperança (Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra, Portugal)
Learning objectives:
This module represents the Sun4All Project with its database of solar images collected over the last 90 years and introduces you to the use of the SalsaJ tool for the analysis of these images. Furthermore, several videos are available taking you on a guided tour through the Observatory of the University of Coimbra in Portugal. These video-excursions demonstrate how a modern spectroheliograph takes solar images and show some older instruments of astronomical investigation in the past.
Module 5: Exploring galaxies
Experts:
Dr. Fraser Lewis, Dr. Sarah Roberts, and Prof. Dr. Paul Roche (Faulkes Telescope Project, United Kingdom)
Learning objectives:
The fourth module of the online course introduces you to the Faulkes Telescope and the Galaxy Crash online labs. You will be explained how to book an observation session with the remote telescope, how to observe diverse space objects like for example galaxies and star-forming regions, and how to take images of them. Additionally, the use of the Galaxy Crash simulation and the integration of these online labs in a pedagogical scenario are demonstrated.
Module 6: Identifying particles with the ATLAS
Experts:
Prof. Dr. Christine Kourkoumelis, Dr. Sofia Chouridou, and Stelios Vourakis (The Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications, Greece)
Learning objectives:
In this module, the Hybrid Pupils' Analysis Tool for Interactions in ATLAS (HYPATIA) is presented. The video lectures of this module provide an introduction to the HYPATIA online lab and two learning scenarios (“Discover the Z and Higgs bosons” and “The motion of a charged particle in the ATLAS magnetic field”), which can be completed with this lab. Some demo videos are incorporated into the lectures to facilitate the handling of this comprehensive tool.