Adapting Lab Courses for Virtual Learning on Benchling

How To Set Up Your Class in Benchling

Now that you know the benefits of Benchling as a virtual learning tool and have these example course modules in your back pocket, start setting up your class in Benchling now!

Step 1. Sign up for a free account - instructors that sign up with this special link receive 10 extra GB of storage space.

Step 2. Create an organization for your class. Organizations are a great way to manage data from across all your students. Members of an organization can access entries and sequences generated by one another, streamlining team-based learning.

Step 3. Invite your students to join your Benchling organization. Using their school emails, invite your students to join your Benchling organization. They will receive an email with a direct link to sign up and join your organization.

Step 4. Organize course sections and content with Benchling projects. Structure Benchling projects to correspond to your teaching needs. For example, if you have multiple course sections or groups, create a different project for each. You can grant individual students access to specific projects. You can add Notebook entries to projects, or organize folders within projects. For example, folders might correspond to virtual lab modules that you plan to cover.

Also you can check out our Benchling Training Kit for Educators to learn more.

Conclusion

We’ve introduced various ways that you can get started on Benchling and adapt your lab course quickly in the current situation. Virtual lab courses are not a substitute for practical wet lab experiences, but we developed this guide to show how Benchling can help during this time. When these uncertain times do come to an end, Benchling can still be a resource for physical laboratory courses. We hope this guide leaves instructors with innovative and exciting ways to incorporate modern tools into their courses, virtual or not.

Resources

• Benchling Training Kit for Educators

• How to Use Benchling for Your Teaching Lab

• The Cloud Software Stack for the Modern Academic Biology Lab