Before attempting to build a lab in the WLab application itself, you should devote some time to planning. You will probably have a broad outline in your mind already if you are considering using WLab and are reading this documentation, but before jumping in consider the following points:
- What is the purpose of the lab exercise?
You should think about what you want to actually achieve with the exercise. What are you trying to impart to your students? Do you intend the lab to be a stand-alone teaching device, with no reference to other modes of teaching? Or, is the lab simply a means for the student to practice techniques and skills that have been communicated via a different method of teaching (e.g. a lecture given previously)? - What activities will the student undertake during the lab?
Having spent some time considering the lab’s purpose, you should now devote some time to examining the actual activities the student will undertake during its execution. Put yourself in a student’s place and make some bullet-points as to what you would actually be doing, step by step. - What intermediate milestones or goals are there during the lab?
Think about where there may be natural breaks, or specific goal points where the lab can be broken up – these will define your lab stages. If you are struggling to break the lab down, you might try to identify the points where new techniques and/or functions are being introduced. - What software/computer configuration is needed in order to do the lab? How will this change with each subsequent lab stage?
Having put yourself in the place of a student undertaking the lab, consider what actual programs you will be using if you were to go from start to finish. You should also think about the data that will be needed within the programs at each lab stage. - Will there be any accompanying static resources?
If your intention was to give the students paper handouts (or indeed, any piece of static prose) containing the lab directions, you might consider breaking this material into small, bite-sized chunks, re-authoring as HTML and publishing them on the web. They can then be added as resources to the lab and will appear alongside the lab environment as the student works.
Spend some time making some bullet-point responses to the above. Then, it's a good idea to try and sketch out the overall form of your lab exercise on paper. Use the diagram from The Structure of a Lab as a basis for this. The sketch doesn't have to be a work of art - if you're familiar with Agile Development, think of the hand-drawn scrawls commonly found on Agile projects! However, the key is try and capture the skeleton of the lab and describe the lab stages. Something like the following is what you should be aiming for:
This is the skeleton sketch for the Paintbrush Demo Lab, which is the example we'll be using to illustrate how to author a WLab lab.