Improvement in Quality of Virtual Laboratory Experiment Designs by Using the Online SDVIcE Tool

Abstract

The major problem engineering instructors have when they wish to effectively integrate any educational technology such as virtual laboratories is the lack of comprehensive guidelines. This paper discusses the design and development of the experiment design guidelines, which enable engineering instructors to design effective virtual laboratory experiments. The instructors follow a step-by-step process for the scientific design of various virtual laboratory experiments and the online SDVIcE tool provides scaffolds with description of various aspects of the experiment design. The effectiveness of the SDVIcE tool is established with the help of a quasi-experimental study carried out with 39 UG engineering students. The students were divided into two groups. The control group students perform the experiment in virtual lab using the traditional experiment design and the students from the experiment group perform experiments designed using the SDVIcE tool. The results of the study indicate that the laboratory learning outcomes and skills developed are improved when they perform experiment in the virtual laboratory with experiment designs carried out using the SDVIcE tool. So it can be claimed that the SDVIcE tool is effective in improving the quality of the virtual laboratory experiment designs.