Design and Implementation of a Virtual Laboratory for Physics Subjects in Moroccan Universities

A comparison of students' preferences for face-to-face and online laboratory sessions: insights from students' perception of their learning experiences in an immunology course

The COVID-19 global pandemic has prompted educators in universities to reconsider their teaching methods, mainly due to the social distancing measures imposed within the classroom settings. On the other hand, the growing importance of continuing education opportunities for adult learners after graduation has seen the need to transform traditional teaching modes that primarily depend on face-to-face interaction into virtual modes, which are deemed more time- and cost-efficient. These major shifts in social and economic developments have a significant impact on the evolution of curriculum planning in higher education. Education that has scientific inquiry components inevitably comes into question, as conventional beliefs that experiments should be hands-on and will not be as effective if conducted virtually cast doubts on the move to the online space. This paper discusses the background of an impending shift in a university's approach to more online-based laboratory classes in an immunology course, as well as the exploration of the potential of conducting online laboratory experiments based on student perceptions.

3DVL@ES

This paper introduces a virtual laboratory that aims to support the quick development and easy assimilation of practical works by learners and exchange documents between them via a shared virtual space. The proposed laboratory, named 3DVL@ES (web-based 3D virtual laboratory in experimental science), defines an agile design process to automatically generate 3D pedagogical web applications and provide very appreciable interactivity, flexibility, and collaboration for practical works development. Also, 3DVL@ES includes the specification of learners' interactions and collaborations on a unified application model to assist and automate the creation of new 3D interfaces related to practical work in experimental sciences. 3DVL@ES has been applied in a real case study of Daniel's Battery. The obtained results have been compared with other virtual laboratories to show the usefulness of 3DVL@ES. Experimental results show that 3DVL@ES laboratory easily achieves complex practical works with the integration of cooperation and collaboration aspects.

Interactive Laboratories for Science Education: A Subjective Study and Systematic Literature Review

In science education laboratory experimentation has a vital role for students’ learning enhancement. Keeping in view the importance of modern day technologies in teaching learning process, various interactive laboratories (ISLs) have been developed to assist students in hands-on experiments in science education. In this paper we describe the potential contributions of existing interactive science laboratories (ISLs) in the major subjects of science, i.e., chemistry, biology and physics. The existing ISLs include virtual labs and simulation software where users performed their experiments. Important problems and challenges in the existing ISLs are highlighted. The systematic literature review (SLR) methodology is used for article searching, selection, and quality assessments. For this study, 86 articles after final selection using SLR are selected and classified into different categories. Each article is selected after briefly studying its different information, including category of the article, key idea, evaluation criterion, and its strengths and weaknesses. A subjective study with field experts was also conducted to investigate one of our existing virtual lab about the practical implementation and to find out the key issues in its implementation and use. Then, considering the suggestions of the subjective study, some guidelines are proposed for the improvement of future ISLs.

The baroreceptor reflex brought to life outside the classroom - an e-learning based asynchronous laboratory class using a non-supervised modified Active Standing Test

BACKGROUND

E-learning based laboratory classes can replace or enhance in-classroom laboratories. They typically offer temporal flexibility, self-determined learning speed, repeatability and do not require supervision or face-to-face contact. The aim of this feasibility study was to investigate whether the established in-classroom laboratory class on the baroreceptor reflex (BRR) can be transformed into a new e-learning based asynchronous laboratory class for untrained, non-supervised students without medical equipment. The BRR is a fundamental cardiovascular process which is regularly visualized in physiology during in-classroom laboratories by a student-performed Active Standing Test (AST). During this voluntary provocation of orthostatic stress, the BRR reliably causes a solid rise in heart rate (HR) and a stabilization or even increase in blood pressure (BP).

METHODS

The conventional AST was modified by omission of BP measurements which would require medical devices and was embedded into a framework of interactive digital material allowing independent student performance. With specific adaptions, this instrument was implemented to 1st and 2nd year curricula of human medicine, dental medicine, midwifery and pharmacy. An audience response system was used to collect the students' data on HR, epidemiology, technical problems, satisfaction and orthostatic symptoms. As primary outcome, we investigated the students' correct performance of the modified AST regarding textbook conformity of the HR data. Secondary outcomes included technical feasibility, the students' satisfaction and consistency of HR data within predefined subgroups (e.g., gender, curricula). Descriptive statistics are reported.

RESULTS

The class was completed by 217 students (mean age: 23 ± 8 [SD], 81% female, 19% male). Mean reported rise of HR during standing was ~ 20 bpm (~ 30%) which is highly concordant to textbooks. Reported feasibility (~ 80% negated any technical issues) and students' satisfaction (4.4 on 5-point Likert-scale) were high. The HR data were consistent within the subgroups.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that the highly relevant BRR can be successfully addressed in an e-learning based asynchronous laboratory class implementing a non-supervised AST restricted to HR measurements embedded in digital material. The robust HR response and the adjustable complexity allow an application to different healthcare-related curricula. This class, therefore, provides a broad audience access to a fundamental concept of cardiovascular physiology.

A virtual simulation experiment platform of subway emergency ventilation system and study on its teaching effect

For safety engineering majors, it is very important to cultivate the practical ability of professional talents. Due to the difficulty of conducting experiments in dangerous environments, a virtual simulation experiment teaching platform was established. The platform allowed students to understand the structure of the subway ventilation room, and master the control requirements of the ventilation system in the event of sudden fire, blockage, and failure in the subway. Its construction used technologies such as 3D modeling, human-computer interaction, and VR. To test the teaching effect of the simulation experiment platform, two indexes of operating skills and cognitive load were selected to study and analyze the experimental results of students. The research adopts the method of stratified sampling, 46 boys and 10 girls were selected from the first-year students majoring in safety engineering, and they were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 23 boys and 5 girls in each group. The experimental group used the simulation platform for teaching, while the control group used the traditional teaching method. The score of the assessment module in the platform was taken as the index of students' operating skills, and the cognitive load test was carried out by questionnaire to test the teaching effect. The test module scores showed that the average score of the experimental group was 32.79 points higher than that of the control group, and the results of the cognitive load test questionnaire showed that the experimental group scored 35.14% lower than the control group. The research shows that the virtual simulation experiment has a stronger teaching effect than the field experiment.

Virtual Laboratories- A historical review and bibliometric analysis of the past three decades

Online and virtual teaching-learning has been a panacea that most educational institutions adopted from the dire need created by COVID-19. We provide a comprehensive bibliometric study of 9523 publications on virtual laboratories in higher education covering the years 1991 to 2021. Influential bibliometrics such as publications and citations, productive countries, contributing institutions, funders, journals, authors, and bibliographic couplings were studied using the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol. A new metric to complement citations called Field Weighted Citation Impact was introduced that considers the differences in research behavior across disciplines. Findings show that 72% of the research work was published between 2011-and 2021, most likely due to digitalization, with the highest number of publications in 2020-2021 highlighting the impact of the pandemic. Top contributing institutions were from the developed economies of Spain, Germany, and the United States. The citation impact from publications with international co-authors is the highest, highlighting the importance of co-authoring papers with different countries. For the first time, Altmetrics in the context of virtual labs were studied though a very low correlation was observed between citations and Altmetrics Attention Score. Still, the overall percentage of publications with attention showed linear growth. Our work also highlights that virtual laboratory could play a significant role in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG4-Quality Education, which largely remains under-addressed.