Virtual lab based meteorology is shown to be an acceptable alternate to face-to-face classes. The uses of the AMS materials along with the availability of Internet resources have been found to be an improvement over the classical laboratory setting. The opportunity for students to complete all aspects of the course including home-based lab experiments has improved enrollment for our department. This presentation also examines our experiences in maintaining academic standards in virtual lab-science courses.

Recent technology advances at the College allow for a greater flexibility in the management of the online courses. This presentation compares our AMS Weather Studies course with other lab-science courses. In addition to the AMS materials, we have added the use of public domain software for lab activities, the use of commercial CD-ROMs, and are presently developing additional teaching materials for these totally virtual meteorology courses.

Teaching totally virtual science-lab courses allows for worldwide distribution (especially helpful to our region’s Navy personnel), which increases our student base by not requiring on-campus meetings and improves the diversity of course offerings as well as students. During the present financial crisis of education, our online lab-science courses are vital in retaining low enrollment departments and their staff.