The most practical approach is to focus on the core learning outcomes rather than trying to duplicate every in-person activity online.

At Dartmouth’s engineering school, faculty stepped back and asked: “What are the most important things students need to learn in this course?” They then reimagined how those outcomes could be achieved at home, instead of aiming for a perfect replica of the campus lab.

Some key tactics that worked:

• Prioritize essentials: Strip away noncritical activities and concentrate on the experiments, projects, and skills that truly drive learning outcomes.
• Use virtual teams: Students collaborated remotely to build and test projects such as 3D-printed chronometers, mini-Segways, balancing bots, and even low-cost ventilator prototypes.
• Blend online tools with physical tasks: Remote access to specialized equipment (for example, a scanning electron microscope) was enabled by retrofitting campus machines for online use.

The result: the school was able to offer 55 engineering courses, only four fewer than planned, with more than half still including lab or project-based components—demonstrating that experiential learning can be reshaped, not abandoned, in virtual and hybrid formats.

A mix of household materials, inexpensive kits, and small equipment investments can make at-home labs both feasible and engaging.

Approaches that proved effective include:

• Repurpose common household items: Faculty designed activities using items like garden hoses, paper clips, sugar, salt, and basic tools. In one course, students built their own plastics impact tester at home using hammers, mallets, and common hardware instead of a $10,000 campus machine.
• Use relatively inexpensive scientific kits: With budgets as modest as $50 per student, the team assembled and shipped kits containing parts such as tubing, wiring, and paper clips. These kits are now being reused as standard materials in future robotics and engineering courses.
• Invest in small, affordable equipment: For a mechanical engineering course, each student received a mini 3D printer costing under $200—less than some textbooks. In a materials science course, students made rock candy at home to study crystal structure.
• Provide small budgets for teams: Distributed student teams were given modest budgets and debit cards to purchase their own materials locally, encouraging creativity and ownership.

By combining these tactics, the school managed to break even financially once savings from reduced building operations and canceled events were factored in—showing that hands-on learning at home can be done without significantly increasing student costs.

Supporting remote experiential learning requires attention to equity, faculty flexibility, and student support structures.

Addressing equity and access

• The pandemic’s impact has been especially hard on Black, brown, and lower-income students. The institution responded by staying highly engaged, facilitating peer-to-peer connections, and being flexible with course design and expectations.
• Materials and kits were shipped directly to students so that everyone could participate, regardless of location. For students on campus later, prepacked and clearly labeled boxes were made available for pickup to reduce both time and cost.

Empowering faculty and staff

• Faculty were encouraged to rethink courses from the ground up and given latitude to experiment with new formats.
• Staff stepped into new roles to make hands-on learning possible. For example, when parts were delayed, an associate dean rented a flatbed truck and sourced materials from local hardware stores. Front-line staff helped box and ship hundreds of lab kits to students.

Providing extra support for students

• Faculty and teaching assistants expanded office hours to accommodate time zones around the world and the added complexity of distance learning.
• Relatively inexpensive, remotely located TAs—such as undergraduates who had recently completed the course—were used to give students more timely help.

Overall, the experience led the institution to reimagine how to be more accommodating and flexible while maintaining high standards, with the goal that every student who wants to participate in experiential learning has a real opportunity to do so.