Computing laboratories and the small community college

Abstract

The small community college faces a unique set of challenges in laboratory implementation. This paper identifies the computing environment at a particular small community college, discusses the instructional content desired by the college, surveys various approaches to laboratories, and offers the approach that the college is using to implement appropriate instructional computing labs. The suggested approach provides for both an “OPEN” and “SCHEDULED” lab, promotes instructor freedom as no one lab approach is dictated by the lab setup, allows directed labs where they are appropriate and documents that class contact hours are set according to standards.