Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Presenter: Let’s get started and I can kind of fill them in as they get moving here. I’m the director
of North American sales for the company called Hands-On Labs. First of all I want to thank Wit
for arranging this this afternoon so I could have a chance to come and listen to what your needs
are and see if we in fact are a match to being the solution… that could help you to drive some of
those enrollments that could allow you to put some of those students through gen ed courses as
well as well as through your master’s program… and give them that hands-on experience.
The company was actually founded eighteen years ago, well before most of this was kind of
thought of in terms of moving online. And the company was founded by a chemistry professor
who lived in Western Colorado. And he found that that in the winter, his students struggled to
get to campus for his courses. And so he just decided that he could put everything in a box that
they needed for their experiments for that semester and have them do all of their experiments at
home. And, therein was born the company. Soon his biology friends and his geology friends and
his physics friends would say, “Well do that for me. Do that for me.”
So today we have eleven different disciplines that we offer and I’ll give you information at the
end of what those eleven different disciplines are. And we also have within each of those
disciplines a number of choices. So we have things for science majors and science non-majors
that are in those intro courses. So we run the gambit in terms of what types of experiments we
would do.
Everything is in micro-scale amount. So it is safe to ship, it is safer for the students to handle,
and I’ll address safety as a part of my PowerPoint here because that is always one of the
foremost concerns. And we get that; so I’ll certainly address the whole question of safety, I’ll
address the question of academic integrity which also comes up anytime you’re talking about
online classes, and I’ll also address pricing because somehow that still comes up despite the fact
we say it’s worth it (laughing,) whatever it costs. I’ll be certainly happy to address that. Are there
any questions that you came in perhaps with, that you want to let me know that say, “Please
make sure that you also touch on this or this? Okay. So let me get—yes?
Male Guest: The background of your company…I think it’s important for people to understand
the scientific underpinnings of your company and the expertise that your founders and CEO have
as well as your association with—I forget what it’s called, with the national—
Presenter: All of the different national boards. I mean, we belong with or are part of all of our
national chemistry people, all our national biology folks, our national like, the Hacks group… all
those different national organizations. And thank you for reminding me to say more about that.
Our company is small: we’re located out of Englewood, Colorado. When I say we’re small, I
mean we have about fifty employees. On staff, I think we have I think it is eighteen PhD’s, all in
the area of science, different sciences. Over and above that, we have about ten master’s degree
programs, master’s degrees programs people have, including myself. Master’s degree
programs—Master’s that people will have, including myself. I have a Master’s in Education; I
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
was a classroom teacher. I actually have been an adjunct professor. And I’m living in Dallas
right now so I’ve served as an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, even though it
wasn’t in the area of science.
But, our company believes first and foremost that we are educators. And so you will see that
everything that comes out of our company has that as the focus. In fact, the newest hire which
you haven’t had the chance to meet comes to us with is Barbekka Hurtt. Barbekka comes to us
with her PhD in neuroscience and is a farmer-teacher at Yale, a professor at Yale. She also
worked for McGraw Hill in their e-learning higher-ed science department. So she’s got an
amazing mind. And those are the caliber of people that Hands-On Labs believes in hiring. So
we’re not another vender. If you want to go and buy beakers or dissection models or anything
else, you know what, you’ll find them at a lot of better places. We are really here for the
educational aspect of this. And I usually actually say, we wrote the book on how to do this.
Because our founders, Linda and Peter Jechofnig, literally were approached from the Josie-Bass
online series of books and were asked to write the book called Teaching Lab Science Courses
Online.
So we know that it is possible. We are also aware that probably eighty percent of the colleges
and universities have put everything else online first before they dare to think about how to do
science. And it is the lab portion that creates the issue. We have three choices: you can go virtual
labs, you can go hybrid which means you bring the students on campus, or you can go fully wet
labs like what we have. And we find that with the virtual labs, universities like yourselves do not
want to accept those credits. Those students have never touched the microscope, they haven’t
touched those dissections, and they haven’t touched so much that is a part of science. And our
founders and current CEO believe that to learn science, you have got to do science.
So we agree that there could be maybe pre- or post-activities or tests that could be done through
virtual, but that really shouldn’t be the bulk of how you’re getting your science lab experience.
The hybrid is another choice, a very fine choice, with one problem. Students have to live within a
geographical area and that means that you have enough lab space to accommodate that. When in
fact, last year when I was working in the Missouri area, Missouri State University, were in the
process of renovating some of their labs. What were they going to do? So they had students
actually coming to campus for lecture, but used our Lab Paq’s and all the students did their
chemistry experiments off-campus, or in the dorms, or whatever it was. So when I started by
saying, I’m here to listen, I’m here to solve whatever dilemma you might have, and it could be
those kinds of questions that Wit mentioned earlier… you could literally put probably thousands
of students through a lecture hall, but you can’t fit them all into your lab times. And guess what?
They don’t want to come on a Friday night at midnight. To campus! Now they’ll do their labs at
home at midnight on Friday night, but they don’t want to come to campus. So, anyway. Does
that help to address that a little bit?
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
That’s one of the reasons that we talk about that we literally support serious educators. We’re not
here at a high school level; we’re not here to say that we sell “stuff” to you. As I said, you could
find that at a lot of other places. We are here to sell the educational value of what labs, hands-on
labs experience. Because as a company, we are committed to the fact that science matters.
So I want to cover this afternoon a little bit is why we believe that it matters, what our solutions
have been and how they’ve evolved, how others have made that transition, and then some tools
for early adopters. We literally at this point have thousands of schools that are using this. And I
know the gentleman at Kansas State where I’m heading this Friday to do a presentation was
excited that I was even coming to Clemson.
So we have places like Pace University, we’re talking to Yale, we’re talking to—well actually,
Florida State University’s already adopted us. So we have a lot of the four-year universities that
are finally making that leap. And one of the things that they find is, if you aren’t offering it, they
can go elsewhere. And that’s the sad part for you because people want that degree from
Clemson, they want all of their courses to be from Clemson, and so they don’t want to be forced
to go elsewhere, but if there’s a particular course and they’re on track to get their nursing degree
and there’s no lab space that they can take the microbiology course here, then they’ll find it
online.
Data suggests that in America, science isn’t necessarily a priority. I’m certainly—when it comes
to Ted—talking to the choir aren’t I? Because you’re finding I’m sure that there’s something that
happens between the time that students are elementary age and when they get to college. Because
I’ve talked a number of times to elementary teachers and they’re going, oh my gosh, the kids are
so excited about science! Well, what happens? Where do they lose that by the time they get to
college and that they don’t want to major in science or go on in science? So we do believe that
there is a solution that we are able to look that. And one of the ways in which to do this is by
offering it online so that you are able to reach students that have science as their passion just as
we as a company have science as our passion.
Many of the non-science students will love to do the virtual labs. It’s like doing a game, one of
their video games. And that is one of the reasons we caution schools against doing the virtual lab
as the only component for a lab or for an online course. Because the students don’t connect that
what I’m doing here, which is just like one of my video games, is serious science matters. And
that’s the piece that we feel is important, and therefore our hands-on piece is going to make that
much better.
So who would you prefer to take care of you or a loved one? Someone who’s had everything
virtual, or someone who’s actually had to do the microscope experiments and other things?
The practical lab experience we have found, and again, Ted could have written this list probably,
there is higher engagement with the students if they are doing science, there’s better test scores. I
jokingly say that I should be the poster child for this company because I wasn’t a science major,
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
I stood around a table with four other people or there other lab partners and I’d say, “Not me; I’m
not touching that! I’ll write up the report.”
Well guess what? If I had been forced to take one of our boxes at home and do all of the work
myself, I would have learned it better. I would have gotten higher test scores, I would have come
out of my biology classes feeling like a really knew it. And I didn’t have that experience. And it
wasn’t that I had a bad teacher. I actually liked my teacher a lot and thought that she had done a
great job. But I wasn’t as engaged and didn’t have to do all of the work myself. And the other
issue I think is sometimes, as a group, we’d be doing something and someone on the other side
of the room would call out… now I’m distracted. So people often say when they talk about
safety, don’t you worry that your students are going to hurt themselves at home? Well guess
what? There are a whole lot more accidents that take place on campus than labs than ever at
home when they’re by themselves. Because they’re not distracted, they’re not trying to impress
someone else at the table or in the room at all with them.
We also find that you’re able therefore to get a degree completed which sometimes again,
because of either distance or times that the labs are offered, it makes it very challenging to get
through the course that you need. And therefore you aren’t as employable at the end. Heaven
know we have heard a whole lot today as we head toward election day about people wanting jobs
and needing to be employed and one of the things that we find is that this does help
employability if can you have those students that complete their degrees.
So in the past we found that online science courses need to mirror campus equivalents. And
that’s still the same. And are you part of the accreditation? Southeast? Southern, okay. And so
what you find in there is that they’ll say that if you are offering an online course—and here I can
talk to my online people—you need to have something comparable to what they’re doing on
campus in terms of their objectives, in terms of the outcomes of those classes. And we are able to
do that.
That third bullet there, we also find that, I have Texas A&M because I live in Dallas. And one of
their campuses—they were expanding and they had gorgeous, beautiful buildings. But they
didn’t have the money to outfit their labs the way they needed to. And so by using our Lab Paq’s,
they were able to get the same experiments they normally would have done on campus without
spending millions of dollars that they would have spent on campus outfitting new labs.
Therefore we find that there are seamless transitions to their other courses and you can reach
students literally anywhere. We have a large group that we ship to Afghanistan, to Iraq, so we
serve the military. Where maybe they want to start here and then they get deployed, or they
know they’re going to be deployed, so rather than start on an on-campus course, they could take
the course and have it totally done online.
So what are some of the best practices that we’ve learned from our early adopters? Now, again
some of you in the distance education world probably could have written this for us. But, and
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
I’m going to go through this pretty quickly But you need to make sure that you’re holding the
student accountable. You need to make sure that there are ways that the students can demonstrate
their knowledge. One of the most common of these—our anatomy and physiology professors
almost always require their students to video-tape themselves doing some parts of the experiment
so that the professors can see the techniques that used in those courses. They can also look at that
question of academic integrity to make sure that the right students are doing the coursework. And
so today’s technology is amazing, and Blackboard is your LMS. So many features are built into
that that make it possible for students to participate in chat rooms and discussion boards, for
those students to download their lab report templates, any of their other work, and directly get it
to their professors.
We also offer at no additional charge to you an e-cartridge. So we will send you the complete lab
manual in an e-cartridge soft chalk format so you can drop that right into the Blackboard system.
So that again is seamless; they’re able to access their lab manual either through Blackboard or
the disk that we give them.
Instructors are the key. And again, I know I’m preaching here to the choir where I say, any of us
that have been professors, any of us that have taught at any level, it still goes back to the teacher.
So you really don’t want to take your weaker teachers and say, “Oh, we’ll put them online.”
You’re only weakening then your online program, just as you would be weakening your oncampus program if they were teaching on campus. So the professor still makes a huge difference.
One of the things down there if you look at the third-last one (talking about the bullet-points) is
to encourage the students to record themselves, demonstrate the ideas, all those things that get
the students excited about what it is that they are doing.
So to implement our solution, your concern might be that student enrollment needs to go up but
you don’t have lab space. So again, we can do that. Your next one might be offering science
online efficiently and effectively. Again, we can do that. Acquire education solutions that can be
customized. We can do that. Offer a safe and rigorous laboratory experience. We offer a 3
million dollar liability policy on any student using one of our Lab Paq’s, so the liability does not
come back here to Clemson. The liability rests on our shoulders as a company. So that’s why
we’re as picky as we are about every single experiment being done in the way which it is written
and that we’ve written the directions clear enough so that students are able to do the experiment
in a safe way. Eighteen years, 100 % safety record. Never one problem.
Level the learning field for online students. In this case, again, you never want to feel that your
online program is weaker, or that your online program doesn’t offer what could be offered on
campus. We can make that possible for that not to be the case.
And then lastly to stay competitive. As I mentioned, if you don’t offer the courses, someone else
does.
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Some of the instructors have encourages us—again I won’t go into a lot of this, but they talked
about using the same type of techniques that you would use if you were teaching on campus. So
invite guest speakers, have teaching games: move beyond a standard PowerPoint that you are
using as a part of your class.
They also encourage peer collaboration. So I’ve already mentioned the discussion boards, the
chat rooms; have them post questions. And one of the things that we find is that I think science
teachers in particular want to be so helpful and they think they have to be the first one to jump in
and answer the questions always from the students, and that really isn’t necessarily the case. It’s
really perfectly fine for the students to kind of help each other a little bit before the professor
comes in.
It’s very, very important for communication. Those of you, again, that work in the e-learning
piece. Is that one of the things that you’ve encouraged for people to do? All of these things right
here, so.
One of the things that we suggest is to confirm that the students have ordered their Lab Paq’s
early enough. We try our very best to have them out within 48 hours of when the orders come in
and how the ordering process works is that, we would hear—I’ll just use you, Ted—Ted would
say, okay, I’m going to be using this for Biology 403, and I’m expecting, if we cap out, I’m
expecting that I will have fifty students. And my start date of that class is January 17th.
So we’d make sure that we, in our warehouse, because we do everything in our one building,
we’d make sure that we have fifty Lab Paq’s for Ted all built the way that we have, you know,
set it up. And so that when those students start coming on our website—there’s a place where it
says students order—they just click on there, put their credit card in and their address and it’s
shipped directly to their home. Ted doesn’t have to worry about it after that; if something gets
broken by UPS, we are the ones that they call. There’s toll-free numbers all over everything, and
they’re given a toll-free at the time when they ordered, they’re given a confirmation slip, so that
gives them a tracking number for UPS…all those things that make their life easier and certainly
your life easier.
If you have financial aid students that you prefer if we work through a bookstore, we’re more
than happy to do that. We actually have some universities who have contracts with Follid(?) or
Barnes & Noble or somebody, and so they say, “We can’t even have the students order online;
we have to go through the bookstore.” So, whatever the circumstances, it doesn’t matter to us.
We’ve heard them all; we’ve done them all (laughing,) so we can, again, certainly make that
very possible for you.
We also ask you to review the lab safety requirements. There’s three levels to this. First of all,
there’s a lab safety document that’s on the disk when they get their pack. Secondly, we ask them
to watch a ten-minute professionally-done safety video that talks about how to set up their space,
how to actually protect themselves while they’re doing the experiments, and then lastly, to clean
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
up. All of our materials are safe to dispose of. OSHA doesn’t get involved in their homes. So all
of it is very safe; they’re micro-scale amounts when it comes to chemicals, there are dissections
that are triple-washed, and so they can wrap them in a newspaper/plastic bag, and put them out
with the weekly trash.
So there’s no extra requirements for disposals.
Some of the quotes that the instructors have said… again, talking about how important it is
toward science education (referencing the “Input from LabPaq Users, Instructor Quotes” slide.)
We also find that actually students save money if you were thinking or those places that were
thinking about hybrid courses. We have done the math and we figured I think it was four dollars
a gallon for gas, (which right now I know is less than that, so that’s pretty good,) but if they drive
twenty miles round-trip and they have to do that fifteen times in a semester… do they have to
take off from work; how many times do they have to get childcare? How many hours? All of
those factors, plus we include the manual as part of our price. And I have heard anything from
thirty dollars for a lab manual, to literally $190 for a lab manual, so it just depends on what lab
manual people are using.
Our average price of our Lab Paq’s is $200. There’s some that are much cheaper because they
don’t have as many experiments or as many items in them. Things for A&P or microbiology will
be closer to that 250-range because they include things like your beef eye (or sheep eye; it was
hard to tell,) your sheep heart, your sheep brain, your cat, your fetal pig, those types of things.
And the microbiology, just because of the types of bacteria and other things that I’m not even
clear on, but I just know it runs the price up in terms of that. And it’s funny; I actually had a
microbiologist tell me he preferred what we offered in terms of what he taught for his classes
because in micro-scale amounts, there were certain things that he could use and he could do with
the students while if we was worried about OSHA or any other entity on campus, and they had to
have these large quantities of some of these items, they weren’t allowed to do it. So the microscale actually allowed him to do several of experiments that he was very excited about himself
that strengthened his microbiology course.
90 % of our students scored either an A or a B. There was just recently on LinkedIn, somebody
who had done a totally separate listing-of-data or pulling-data from a college that has used us
now for eight years. And the data is unbelievable in terms of how much better the students
actually did using the LabPaqs, than even the students who were on campus.
The students also actually liked it: Look at that second one, “I needed microbiology, but there
was a long waiting list so I took it online at another college.” “As a new dad, LabPaqs let me
work at home and help out with the baby.” So, there’s just a number of reasons that students do
prefer it.
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Here’s a list of our available disciplines, and that completes the formal piece (shows slide
“Available Disciplines.”)
Two pieces that I’m going to be giving you: one of them has to do with our solution: so it’s a
one-page flier; it includes my business card and talks about some of those reasons that you may
have. I’ll call them your pain points, and what we might be able to do to help you. The other
piece that I’ll be happy to give you—I brought copies of each of the eleven areas.
This one, for example, is biology. And this will tell you on the front, the name of the experiment,
and for science majors, which experiments are included in what we call your signature Paq, these
are the Paqs that we literally make thousands every semester, and so the price on these is bare
bones just because of the sheer volume of them. We also have on here which ones are nonmajors, and so you can easily match that. If you’re not sure what this experiment might cover,
inside is there’s a listing of all the experiments. Sometimes I think some people might be like,
“Muscle Fatigue: Okay great. Are they going to be exercising? What are you asking them to
do?” So you’d be able to look in here and see what that includes.
So, as I said, I’ve got these for each of the eleven areas of the disciplines.
Questions? Yes?
Female Guest: Oh my god, through the roof!
Presenter: Good! I love when there’s questions!
Female Guest: I haven’t taught a science. This might be a stupid question. How do you know
which labs to put in a given course?
Presenter: Excellent question. That’s not at all a stupid question. What you would normally
have—and Ted, you can join in here in a moment—but I think what you would normally have is
a syllabus that you’re following. So for Biology 403, here are the topics that we cover, the
outcomes, the objectives… all those things that we’re needing. So it doesn’t matter to us which
textbook you’re using. But there will be labs that would be appropriately-matched to those topics
that are within the textbook. And we can customize it, or nine times out of ten, one of the
signature Paqs that lots of universities use may follow—I mean, let’s face it. Let’s say people are
saying, “I’m using McGraw Hill’s blah-blah-blah.” Guess what? Lots of people are using that
textbook, so we’ve got a LabPaq that matches it.
So, did I answer that pretty closely, Ted?
Female Guest 2: Okay, I gotta think about it. I got it. As I remember the sciences, I needed stuff
like a microscope. Like something that… serious equipment. What do you do about that?
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Presenter: Our serious equipment comes in this box. And I’ll have a chance for you to look at it.
There’s actually, for our non-major chemistry folks, we have a 200 x microscope, and it works
perfectly fine for what they are doing at that level.
Female Guest: And they keep it?
Presenter: And they keep it. And many of them enjoy keeping it because there’s other courses
they may be taking later on, or the second-semester course may require it.
The same is true in terms of our AP I, AP II, and Microbiology. Again, if the students there
would need to purchase a microscope, it does not become part of the package. But, because they
are needing it for three courses, which is the normal progression they would do. They might find
that the microscope that one is a 600 x which comes with an Ohlin version lens which takes it up
to 1500 x, which is what they need for the type of blood work or other work that they’re doing in
AP I and AP II and Microbiology. Even with the Ohlin version lens, it’s still only around $160.
So you divide that by three courses and it’s very affordable to them.
There’s some places that will say, “Oh I’d rather if they could, if they’re close to a college or a
university, maybe they could work out a deal to use the microscope at an off time.” Maybe they
can; maybe they don’t want to bother with the inconvenience. And again, for what it’s going to
cost them to drive there if they’re not going for anything else, they’re better off spending the
$160. They’ve got a decent microscope, because a lot of them are going into health-related
careers.
Now we do offer an option that’s called the virtual scope. It’s pretty cool because you literally
feel like you’re adjusting it. You learn the techniques of using a microscope, but you do it on the
keys of the keyboard of your computer instead of physically having that microscope in front of
you.
Those we offer for those higher-level courses because again you have to know the outcomes and
the objectives. So what you asked before in terms of how do you max some of these things?
Maybe a lower-level science course had as their objective to understand and to know how to use
a microscope. So then we actually have microscopy as one of our experiments where they would
have to actually learn how to use the microscope. Well then by the time they get to AP I and AP
II or Micro, it’s like, “I know they know how to do that so I’m okay if they use the virtual
because now what I’m worried about are my outcome where they have to look at those slides and
can identify things.
So we give you choices in terms of the microscope piece.
Female Guest: One moment?
Presenter: Go right ahead.
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Female Guest: As I remember from science class, some of them were like connect-the-dots. Like
my dog could do it (Laughter). It required very, very little thinking. Others were more similar
inquiry-guided, and you really did have to think and results were not obvious. So how do your
labs vary on…?
Presenter: Sure. Most of these we have been told fall into that second grouping of the inquirybased and are far more rigorous. And so we are very proud of the fact—and so we say these
would never be done by an elementary, middle school/junior high, high school even, unless
you’re in advanced placement high school student that’s headed for college credit with it.
So they’re the rigorous experiments; that’s why the details in our lab manual are so important as
to how those experiments need to be done. And that’s also why the feedback that they give back
to the professor is terribly important because you want to be sure that they eventually know what
the results should and could be. But one of the things that I think anyone in science also believes
is that you sometimes can learn from your mistakes. If it doesn’t turn out the right way, what
does that tell you? And so it’s not necessarily that it just tells that you messed up, but they could
tell you or take you down a path of learning something else about the scientific method.
So there’s real plusses for having them do those experiments, figure out if what they’ve gotten,
and that’s one of the reasons that we believe strongly that they need to get that feedback to their
professors rather than just calling a friend who’s also taking this course and copying the exact
same answers. It doesn’t quite work that way. Okay? Good.
Somebody else I thought had their question… their hand up…. No? Sure!
Female Guest: Since you did mention, …. Dispose of everything…. It’s not…. To dispose of….
Equipment. (Broken/difficult to decipher. It seems that she is asking what to do with leftover
materials?)
Presenter: Exactly. That’s an excellent question. There are a couple of things that we
recommend. It’s ultimately on the shoulders of the school, but we recommend that they may
want to donate those supplies that are left if they have beakers they haven’t broken, or if they
have test tubes. They could donate that to their local elementary or junior high classes that are
always grateful to have an extra test tube. One of the things is that we don’t have materials or
buy materials designed to last forever and ever and ever. So I mean, somebody has said to me,
“Oh my gosh, in the lab that particular item has cost us thousands of dollars. How can you sell it
as a part of your 200-dollar Paq?” Well, because it’s not that same thickness of glass… it’s
designed for a one- or two-time use. But if there are items left, we certainly suggest that they
donate them to some place that can’t always afford to have their own things.
Microscopes are… are they part?
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
No, no, no, no! (Laughter.) You’re right! Let me see… For example though, here’s their
dissection kit. So, I mean, it’s a very nice scissors, you know, all their pieces, all their blades and
things are in here well-wrapped. I mean, no. Things aren’t cardboard. And what we do to make
sure that the experiments are clearly marked, we do put enough in there that if they mess up, they
can do the experiment a second time. So if they spill something or whatever… but all of the
items are very clearly marked. Here’s some of their slides… So they will clearly tell them, “This
is an amoeba.” (Laughter.) I know. This is the one piece that… I get more requests for, “Can I
just have that spring scale that you have in there? So apparently that’s a pretty nice item.
Yea, there you go. So it’s comfortable.
Female Guest: Asking a question. Indecipherable at full volume. Online programs, they have a
separate…technology for their class. And then for online classes they have different labs.
And you may want to keep a small class and almost like an administrative piece of it, but at the
same time, I mean that’s to say… we get to do it when we want and they love it! They can do
their labs every hour, day or night, whenever they want to do it.
Female Guest: Biology….? Customized….? (too quiet to decipher.)
I think so. We have some that are considered biology-majors. But I’ll give you the list and you
can look at it and see if that qualifies for what you are calling graduate courses versus the other.
The other option is one that is an interesting course. It often falls under the education course; it’s
a science methods course, for whether it is elementary, junior high, or high school course. So
that’s a science method’s course that’s very interesting in that it’s got some biology, some
chemistry, some physics, and some geology. So that’s one of the “odd,” rather than “normal”
science courses that we offer.
Next question indecipherable.
Yes. It’s amazing. We’ve actually talked to the Late-Night Labs folks. I feel like Harris is my
best friend up in New York. I went up one time and we’ve met because we actually talked about,
there’s a purpose for some of those labs. Maybe it’s pre-work, maybe it’s post-work. Maybe you
want at least eight wet labs but I’m okay if I buy from Late-Night Labs five that might actually
show some things better. And we’ve talked. We’ve had some serious conversations about it.
Female Guest: About Late-Night Labs, they’re great… (?)
Presenter: To combine the two is really the strength. And that’s the piece they understand; there
are colleges who want those virtual, but when you get the university, they won’t accept those
credits. They understand that. And they actually approached us first to see if we could talk. And
we’re still talking.
Female Guest: Must have inquired about the price.
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Presenter: They tell me that theirs are fifty dollars for their course. And I think most of their
courses, I want to say were six experiments maybe. That’s what I’m remembering and I
apologize because it’s been a couple months now since I talked pricing with them. I actually saw
Harris about two weeks ago at the Sloan Conference and we were actually chatting about that.
We need to bring this conversation back to the board room again and talk about it again.
That’s… somewhere I’m remembering that fifty-dollar price.
Female Guest: Can’t hear question.
Yea, it’s definitely, right. To me, the best is the combination.
Female Guest: As a science lab taken, taught…. I think it’s….
We’ve done our homework. Of the virtuals, they by far are the best. They’re all, they’re all
science folks. They do. They’re very strong and I laughed because I met three of them when I
went to their office up in New York. I want to say that they have five employees maybe. They’re
a really small company, but they’re very good at what they do, so.
Good question though.
Male Guest: What does allied help break down into?
Presenter: That’s a great question. Right now we’re kind of in transition, but we have AP I and II
and Micro. Because those tend to be the three heading toward nursing. But when Barbekka came
in about a month ago, she started with us; she goes, “Wait a minute. That’s not what places are
calling allied help.” She said we’ve got the experiments; we just need to package them different.
So keep an eye out; they’re changing so that they’ll match what universities are doing.
You’ve had great questions!
Female Guest: How many experiments do you have?
Presenter: 432. Give or take, plus or minus. (Laughing.) And we have literally 185 different
configurations of our Lab Paq’s because we have customized for people. Of those though, the
funny part is that if you know anything about the 80/20 rule that you hear often, literally 80 % of
our Lab Paq’s that we sell are 20 of the paq’s we have. So there’s some very popular ones that
are obviously more common, especially as people are moving toward wanting to do a complete
degree online.
Male Guest: That’s the university’s focus. We’re focused on moving whole programs online, so
that every fee that’s associated on campus may not apply to an online student. That may differ
when we talk about expanding gen. ed. science courses because they may not be tied to the same
tuition and fee rubric of an online program, but I do see a need to have some online gen. ed.
Presenter: That’s our fastest-growing. We’re always hearing gen. ed., gen. ed.
Kara Wylie
Echo 360 Transcript
Hands-on Labs
11/06/12
Female Guest: My own interest. Can people buy…?
Presenter: Yes! You would be able to go online to our website and go to the home school section
and do that. We are always very careful on home school because we’re talking college level here.
We’re not talking high school level.
Cut off.