A Community Springs to Action to Enable Virtual Laboratory Instruction

The COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to face-to-face teaching at many colleges and universities. While numerous methods for synchronous and asynchronous teaching in lecture courses were quickly deployed, laboratory instruction presented a unique set of challenges. To develop online laboratories quickly would be a daunting task for an individual. However, contributions of many individuals could ease and hasten the transition to using virtual laboratories. The IONiC-VIPEr community of practice is one such community that sprung to action to provide virtual alternatives for inorganic chemistry laboratory instruction.