Student-led Development of Virtual Laboratories for Multimodal (Hybrid) Teaching

This presentation will report on the student-led feedback and modifications made to improve our virtual laboratory experiments developed for multimodal (hybrid) teaching. These virtual laboratories were used by remote students to replace their on-campus laboratory sessions, while also made available for students who attended on campus. The incorporation of the virtual laboratory in this new delivery format sought to increase student engagement and comprehension of the laboratory. As previous studies have noted that some students adopt an absent-minded approach to the laboratories, causing them to miss out on the vital learning outcomes^1-3.

Using effective measures such as attitude, feelings of usefulness, and overall satisfaction with the content, we could discern the utility students perceived in the tool and how to improve future virtual laboratories. Student feedback indicated that an increased focus on the theoretical underpinnings of the laboratory and increased flexibility of movement within the tool would improve their perceived utility of the virtual laboratory.⁴ Through student-led feedback, we have developed a series of gamified chemistry experiments now hosted on “The Virtual Scientist”.

References