  This article introduces a set of distance education astronomy laboratory
exercises for use by college students and instructors and discuss first usage
results. This General Astronomy Education Source (GEAS) exercise set contains
eight two-week projects designed to guide students through both core content
and mathematical applications of general astronomy material. Projects are
divided between hands-on activities and computer-aided analyses of modern
astronomical data. The suite of online resources includes student and
instructor guides, laboratory report templates, learning objectives, video
tutorials, plotting tools, and web-based applications that allow students to
analyze both images and spectra of astronomical objects. A pilot usage study
indicates that distance learners using these materials perform as well or
better than a comparison cohort of on-campus students. We are actively seeking
collaborators to use these resources in astronomy courses and other educational
venues.

Physics Education