Video Tutorials for Lab Preparation: Student Outcomes for Lab and Course Performance and Instructor Evaluation.

Nine pre-laboratory videos were created and used in place of a normal classroom lab introduction in an undergraduate soil physics course. There was an accompanying quiz with each video to ensure participation and hold students accountable for lab preparation. Additionally an electronic version of the lab procedure was available to the students. The quiz questions (multiple choice) were written to require critical thinking and require understanding of both the procedure and equations outlined in the video and electronic procedure. To evaluate the effectiveness of the video/quiz approach to lab preparation, students were surveyed and student outcomes were recorded. Student outcomes on pre-lab quizzes were highly correlated with course success. Students, in general, preferred the pre-lab video and quiz approach in place of an extra hour of lab (lab time was cut from 3 to 2 hours). Instructor noted that there were far fewer students/groups needing to repeat measurements due to error.