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About
About
The laboratories are collections of activities by their subjects. They feature investigations based on interactive instruments, remote access experiments and virtual scenarios using real data. The number of activities is growing. Some are open to everyone while others are only available to The Open University (OU) students. Select the laboratory of your interest to explore the activities it has.
On the laboratory page, you’ll find:
Filters enable you to find the activities of your interest easily. You can use ‘Subject’, ‘Study level’, ‘Availability’ and ‘Favourites’ to narrow the list of activities. With the ‘Sort by’ feature, you can sort the list in alphabetical order.
Popular activities are listed by default unless you have any favourites or recently visited activities. Favourites and recently visited activities will only be available if logged in.
Activities have a recognisable image, a title, and a short description. For some activities there may be an indication of how long it should take you to work through the application and associated materials. You can select the favourite icon to mark an activity as a favourite. Activities can be open to everyone which is indicated by an open padlock, or open to users in certain groups or modules which is indicated by a person with a tick. ‘Visit activity’ will take you to the activity.
On each activity's page, you’ll find:
A fuller description including further guidance
Links to get you started
'About the activity' box showing 'subject' and 'study level' information
Popularity statistics displaying the trend in usage of this activity and its popularity among all activities.
OU students access some activities which require remote access to instruments. For those activities, we have a booking system in place. Booking links are also available on activity pages. To book a time:
Select the booking link with the icon.
Choose a date.
Select ‘Book’ for a time.
As an OU student, after booking a time you’ll receive an email including a link to the activity. Using that link, you can manage your booking or access the activity during the booked time.
If you’re interested in becoming an OU student and having access to more activities, check our study site.