Case Study: College of the Redwoods improves open-access biology instruction with LabArchives

College of the Redwoods - Customer Case Study

College of the Redwoods, a community college, faced the significant challenge of high textbook and course material costs, which created a financial barrier for its students. Biology instructor Wendy Riggs sought to implement open access educational tools to reduce expenses. She utilized resources from OpenStax and adopted the LabArchives electronic lab notebook platform specifically for her online biology courses with a lab component.

The LabArchives solution provided a centralized digital platform for students to complete all phases of their lab work remotely, including accessing materials, submitting assignments, and collaborating via forums. This integration streamlined the course and eliminated the need for a physical textbook. As a result, the biology department adopted the low-cost OpenStax textbook for all non-majors courses, significantly reducing student costs. LabArchives was described as "clutch" for making the online lab feasible and received positive feedback from grateful students.

College of the Redwoods

Wendy Riggs

Teacher