NANSLO logo

NANSLO provides a consortium approach to the development and deployment of high-quality, modular, openly licensed courseware integrating learner-centered and immersive web-based labs using software, video and robotics for the study of science courses.

NANSLO Core Units and Laboratory Experiments by the North American Network of Science Labs Online, a collaboration between WICHE, CCCS, and BCcampus

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License based on a work at rwsl.nic.bc.ca.

Funded by a grant from EDUCAUSE through the Next Generation Learning Challenges.

Project Overview

Download a one-page summary about NANSLO

Lead organization and major partners

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), nonprofit organization with 15 member states, will serve as the coordinating partner and fiscal agent for the North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) project. NANSLO provides a technological solution that will address many of the barriers that prevent low-income, first generation college students who are at risk of failing to complete their degrees or pursue science-based careers due to challenges such as work and family obligations or living in rural areas that limit their access to traditional classes.

This project builds on the success of the open educational science courseware and the Remote Web-based Science Laboratory (RWSL) developed by members of BCcampus, a consortium of 25 postsecondary institutions, located in British Columbia (BC), Canada. BCcampus and the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) are WICHE’s major partners for this work. BCcampus will provide Web-based science lab equipment, infrastructure and setup recommendations to WICHE and CCCS. CCCS is comprised of 13 community colleges, which will pilot NANSLO during the grant period.

In addition, the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Wyoming, Montana State University, Great Falls College of Technology and Laramie County Community College join the consortium as members of NANSLO’s advisory board and discipline panels, as well as potential sites for expansion of NANSLO (beyond the grant period). Inverness Research will serve as the external evaluator.

Description of the project

As part of its Open Educational Resource development initiative, BCcampus-funded member institutions developed online biology, physics, geology and chemistry courses and designed, acquired, and operationalized a Remote Web-based Science Lab (RWSL) to fulfill the lab component of these courses. BCcampus licensed these courses for reuse and sharing via Creative Commons licensing.

During the grant period, NANSLO will offer critical gatekeeper courses—biology, physics and chemistry courses with labs modeled after BCcampus at the 13 colleges that comprise the CCCS. In addition, NANSLO will replicate at CCCS the remote laboratory currently in operation at North Island College in British Columbia. BCcampus agrees to play an integral role with WICHE and CCCS as it replicates these courses and laboratories so that the project can be implemented as efficiently as possible. NANSLO will support the integration of RWSL technology and open science courseware into these freshman-level courses.