Lab group size and laboratory duration

Engineering courses all have an element of practical work. One category of this is the laboratory where students perform experiments to either look at physical phenomena or systems. There has been very little research into how students and staff would like these laboratories to be conducted to optimise their experience. A questionnaire was sent to staff and students in the Faculty of Engineering at Sheffield University to find out their opinions on laboratories. The response rates were lower than would be hoped, but the actual numbers of responses (40 staff and 181 students) were reasonable for this type of work. This paper reports on the results obtained on lab duration and group size and also whether students like or dislike laboratories. The results show that students like relatively short labs (a maximum of two hours). Students and staff would ideally like students to do experiments in pairs. Students who like labs tend to want smaller groups while those who dislike them desire larger groups. Surprisingly, both students who like and dislike labs would generally like more labs., This work shows that shorter labs in smaller groups take the same resources as longer labs with bigger groups while generally providing a better experience. It is hoped that this work will help make laboratories more efficient, effective and attractive to students.