The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a need for social distancing measures in public spaces and will have an important impact on university level teaching going forward. Remote methods to complete laboratory related activities are a potential means of students achieving practical credit while still isolating or social distancing. We outline the implementation of two novel remote exercises, based on coding in Mathematica, and the methods used to provide ongoing help to students. These exercises are used as a case study to identify potential problems with remote exercises based on student feedback. Suggestions for how these problems might be overcome in further iterations of these remote exercises are explored.