Adding Some Lab Time is Good, Adding More Must be Better: the Benefits and Barriers to Lab-Centric Courses

This paper examines the benefits that can arise from increased use of labs in computer science instruction. While some use of labs is widespread in the earliest computer science courses, lecture and other “hands-off” time dominate. We have designed and run lower-division courses that successfully implement lab-centric instruction, in which the instructor contact time with students is either wholly or predominately through structured lab time. We talk about the benefits that lab-centric instruction can offer, our experiences with it, the factors constraining the adoption of lab-centric instruction at other institutions, and ways of overcoming these constraints.