Gina Londino-Smolar, School of Science
Principal Investigator: Gina Londino-Smolar, senior lecturer, School of Science, and Teaching and Learning Technologies, UITS
Project Title: Creation of Investigative Forensic Science Laboratory Online Course
Funding Level: $5,000
Abstract:
Investigating Forensic Science, FIS 10101, is a laboratory course that was developed specifically for non-science majors and is a part of the general education core curriculum. There has been significant growth in course enrollment since the course was first offered in 2012. Regardless of the course being offered each semester; fall, spring, and summer, there are still waiting lists due to the limited options for non-science major laboratory courses for undergraduate students. Many science laboratory courses are required for science majors and there are not many options for non-science students. FIS 10100 however was specifically designed with non-science students in mind and, due to the limited amount of laboratory space available, this is a perfect course to be taught in an online environment. The purpose of this project is to develop a standalone laboratory course within the general education core curriculum for non-science majors in an online environment. This course will include hands-on and virtual experiences that students will be required to complete without having to come onto campus. Online students will have similar experiences as the face-to-face students in constructing laboratory experiments, generating data, and interpreting results. This will also allow more students from other campuses to complete the course for the general education core requirement.