Measuring the impact on the teaching/learning process derived from introducing multidisciplinary virtual labs in higher education hybrid learning environments - Sponsored by ALGETEC | IFE Living Lab and Data Hub

Measuring the impact on the teaching/learning process derived from introducing multidisciplinary virtual labs in higher education hybrid learning environments - Sponsored by ALGETEC

Laboratory education plays a vital role in the education of our students (Sheppard et al., 2008). Beyond concepts and principles, laboratories help students develop essential professional skills such as problem-solving, designing, and troubleshooting (Feisel & Rosa, 2005; Wankat & Oreovicz, 2015). However, the use of laboratories in education may be limited by a series of factors, including the cost of equipment, time, and infrastructure, among others (Abdulwahed & Nagy, 2014; Achumba et al., 2013; Bhargava et al., 2006; Magana & Coutinho, 2017). To reduce the consequences of such limitations, educators are constantly looking for emerging technologies that make the lab more inclusive, creative, and effective. Among these technologies, virtual laboratories are becoming very popular in engineering and science education(Potkonjak et al., 2016).

The literature mentions several advantages of virtual labs compared to traditional hands-on labs(de Jong et al., 2013; Heradio et al., 2016). First, virtual labs usually require lower investment and fewer resources. Second, virtual labs can be accessed remotely. Third, virtual labs foster students’ learning of concepts and principles through simulations and representations of abstract phenomena. Finally, virtual labs are usually flexible and allow students to change the values of the different variables and explore the experimental results faster than hands-on or remote experimentation. A common critique regarding the use of virtual labs refers to the use of idealized data that usually does not reflect the uncertainties and nuances of the real world. Also, these labs generally lack the sense of reality necessary to immerse students in more authentic experiences.

Furthermore, many virtual labs focus on developing students’ conceptual understanding of a particular phenomenon or theory (Hawkins & Phelps, 2013; Kollöffel & de Jong, 2013; Tatli & Ayas, 2013; Zacharia, 2007). In most cases, characteristics associated with the equipment, the setup, the environment, and experimental procedures are neglected. This approach is appropriated in most science-based courses and usually results in equivalent learning gains compared to traditional hands-on labs. However, such an approach might hinder the development of essential skills associated with labs in engineering education. Among these skills, one might cite communication and collaboration, safety, designing experiments, and learning from failure.

Nowadays, fueled by the pandemic of COVID-19, virtual labs seem to be pervasive within all levels of education (Glassey & Magalhães, 2020). Thanks to the use of virtual labs, many institutions were able to deliver quality education, even facing the terrible consequences of the pandemic (Ray & Srivastava, 2020). However, while the use of virtual labs now sees no limit in terms of applicability and usability, it seems that a great effort must be made to create new labs, more realistic and able to develop different skills other than conceptual understanding. Also, it is essential to explore pedagogical approaches more contextualized with virtual labs. In addition, more research must be done towards measuring the learning efficiency of such virtual labs, identifying opportunities, and indicating trends for future research.

This call for proposals aims to measure the impact on the teaching/learning process by introducing a multidisciplinary virtual laboratories platform (i.e. ALGETEC) in higher education courses. Therefore, we invite fellow researchers to submit a proposal that fosters multidisciplinary collaboration with faculty members and students, in order to experiment and evaluate the enrichment generated from adopting virtual labs practices in their courses.

All accepted proposals will gain free access (licensing) throughout the duration of the call to ALGETEC’s virtual labs platform and portfolio for their experiments and analysis to take place. The resulting outcomes are expected to be published in a high-indexed journal.

Objective: To measure and analyze the impact on the teaching/learning process derived from introducing virtual laboratories in multidisciplinary higher education courses.

We are calling for proposals addressing (but not limited to) one or several of the following approaches:

Measuring the development of technological, cognitive, professional, and social competences in students that include virtual laboratories in their studies.
Measuring the development of skills and competences in teachers that introduce virtual laboratories in their courses.
Measuring the enrichment of the teaching/learning process when introducing virtual laboratories in higher education courses (i.e. learning curves, grade enhancement, participatory culture, engagement, etc).
Evaluating the functionality of the provided virtual laboratories platform for their further improvement and development.

Keywords: Virtual Laboratories, Educational Innovation, Higher Education, EdTechs, Living Lab

Abdulwahed, M., & Nagy, Z. K. (2014). The impact of different preparation modes on enhancing the undergraduate process control engineering laboratory: A comparative study. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 22(1), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.20536

Achumba, I. E., Azzi, D., Dunn, V. L., & Chukwudebe, G. A. (2013). Intelligent performance assessment of students’ laboratory work in a virtual electronic laboratory environment. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 6(2), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2013.1

Bhargava, P., Antonakakis, J., Cunningham, C., & Zehnder, A. T. (2006). Web-based virtual torsion laboratory. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 14(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.20061

de Jong, T., Linn, M. C., & Zacharia, Z. C. (2013). Physical and virtual laboratories in science and engineering education. Science, 340(April), 305–308.

Feisel, L. D., & Rosa, A. J. (2005). The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate Engineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 121–130. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00833.x

Glassey, J., & Magalhães, F. D. (2020). Virtual labs - love them or hate them, they are likely to be used more in the future. Education for Chemical Engineers, 33(January).

Hawkins, I., & Phelps, A. J. (2013). Virtual laboratory vs. traditional laboratory: which is more effective for teaching electrochemistry? Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 14, 516–523. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3rp00070b

Heradio, R., De La Torre, L., Galan, D., Cabrerizo, F. J., Herrera-Viedma, E., & Dormido, S. (2016). Virtual and Remote Labs in Education: a Bibliometric Analysis. Computers & Education, 98, 14–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.03.010

Kollöffel, B., & de Jong, T. (2013). Conceptual understanding of electrical circuits in secondary vocational engineering education: Combining traditional instruction with inquiry learning in a virtual lab. Journal of Engineering Education, 102(3), 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20022

Magana, A. J., & Coutinho, G. S. (2017). Modeling and simulation practices for a computational thinking-enabled engineering workforce. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 25(1), 62–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21779

Potkonjak, V., Gardner, M., Callaghan, V., Mattila, P., Guetl, C., Petrović, V. M., & Jovanović, K. (2016). Virtual Laboratories for Education in Science, Technology, and Engineering: a Review. Computers & Education, 95, 309–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.02.002

Ray, S., & Srivastava, S. (2020). Virtualization of science education: a lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Proteins and Proteomics, 11(2), 77–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42485-020-00038-7

Sheppard, S.D., Macatangay, K., Colby, A., & Sullivan, W.M. (2008). Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field. Jossey-Bass.

Tatli, Z., & Ayas, A. (2013). Effect of a Virtual Chemistry Laboratory on Students’ Achievement. Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 159–170. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1016363&site=ehost-live

Wankat, P. C., & Oreovicz, F. S. (2015). Teaching engineering (2nd ed.). Purdue University Press.

Zacharia, Z. C. (2007). Comparing and combining real and virtual experimentation: An effort to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of electric circuits. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 23(2), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2006.00215.x

Virtual Labs Platform Considered in the Call

ALGETEC (Plataforma A+)

It all began in 2011, in a garage-like space, when most of the engineering course-related experiments carried out in classrooms in Brazil depended on imported instruments and equipment. Working to develop compact and multidisciplinary laboratories, ALGETEC began producing engineering teaching tables, constantly improving their processes to become a leader in the market. Currently, they offer 85 models of physical laboratories, which are produced in more than a thousand units per year.

In 2018, a growing demand at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in Purdue University (USA), lead ALGETEC to invest in the development of virtual labs, which was the perfect opportunity to apply their expertise in physical laboratories to develop digital tools for online learning environments.

As of today, the company that started with two college professors, offers a portfolio with more than 700 virtual labs, and launches between 25 and 30 new experiments each month, for teaching Natural Sciences, Health Sciences, Engineering and Humanities.

ALGETEC is the only company in the world that manufactures physical laboratories and develops virtual labs, impacting more than 600 thousand students and collaborating with more than 250 public and private educational institutions in Latin America, North America and Africa.

ALGETEC’s philosophy is centered in promoting a better learning experience by developing virtual labs that closely resemble real laboratory practices. Therefore, all the data used in their virtual labs, is collected from performing real experiments in physical laboratories. This means that a student can perform a virtual experiment with extreme precision in measurements and operations, including the reproduction of possible errors during practice.

The main advantage from using virtual labs is that students are in a safe environment, therefore allowing them to make mistakes without any risks. Furthermore, students can repeat the experiments as many times as necessary, within the Learning Management System (LMS) of their educational institution, and at any time they require.

Overall, a virtual lab works as a complement of the physical laboratory. Students can initially learn the procedures in a digital environment, to later test and develop their manual skills in a real environment.

Key subjects on the platform: Health-care, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Arts.

To learn more about ALGETEC, go to: Algetec - Virtual Labs

To access ALGETEC’s virtual lab portfolio go to: Virtual Labs Portfolio

To view ALGETEC’s seminar at the IFE LL&DH go to:
Virtual Labs as a pedagogical tool for a modern and high-quality higher education: the case of Algetec, a Brazilian edtech (May 13, 2022)

Advisory Board

Important dates

July 05, 2022: Call for proposals launch.
July 21, 2022 12:00PM (GMT-6): Q&A session [View Presentation] [View Session Recording].
August 08, 2022 23:59 (GMT-6): Extended abstract submission deadline.
August 22, 2022 23:59 (GMT-6): Full proposal submission deadline.
August 23 - September 08, 2022: Evaluation of submitted proposals.
September 09, 2022: Notification of accepted proposals.
September - October, 2022: ALGETEC training session (Exact dates to be defined).
October, 2022 - March, 2023: Experimentation and analysis phase.
January 09, 2023: Presentation of advances to ALGETEC.
January 16-18, 2023: Presentation of proposal advances at the 9th International Conference on Educational Innovation (CIIE-2023).
April 30, 2023: Submission of proposal outcomes in a high indexed journal.

Submission Process

We encourage you to send your files in PDF format.
The extended abstract must be a one page description of the proposal [abstract template], including the main objectives, experimentation protocol, analysis methodology, and involved stakeholders (i.e. students considered in the study).
The full proposal must use the template provided by the IFE Living Lab & Data Hub for this call [obtain it here].
Extended abstracts and proposals will be managed by correspondence to ife.livinglab@servicios.tec.mx).

Assessment Guidelines

The research proposal document must follow the structure defined by the IFE Living Lab & Data Hub.
We recommend reviewing ALGETEC’s virtual labs portfolio to determine which fields of study could participate and benefit from this call (Virtual Labs Portfolio).
We encourage the study of teaching/learning competences, however, applicants may propose other teaching/learning enrichment variables, supported by related previous studies found in the literature.
We also recommend that your proposal’s team consists of multidisciplinary researchers and faculty members, hence promoting a more robust research study.

Multi-institutional collaborations are encouraged to further improve the proposed experiments and activities.
ALGETEC’s platform already provides pedagogical resources (practices) for their existing virtual labs, hence this can facilitate the application of its contents to ongoing higher education courses.
The IFE Living Lab will coordinate and schedule co-creation activities, such as training sessions, mentoring sessions and interviews, thus ensuring that the selected proposals timeline is being followed throughout the call.
The advisory board will act as mentors for the best-evaluated proposals throughout this stage.

The results and outcomes from each research proposal must be documented in the form of an article according to the guidelines of the selected journal. A list of suggested journals for submission will be provided by the IFE Living Lab & Data Hub. The resulting article must be sent in PDF format to the following email ife.livinglab@servicios.tec.mx.

Participants are requested to include the following legend in the acknowledgments of the publications, presentations, and technical reports that result from this call: The authors would like to acknowledge the Living Lab & Data Hub of the Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, for their support and guidance throughout the Call "Measuring the impact on the teaching/learning process derived from introducing multidisciplinary virtual labs in higher education hybrid learning environments", which made the production of this work possible.

In case the article cannot be submitted to the suggested journals, please send a letter to ife.livinglab@servicios.tec.mx with an explanation of the reasons and the intention to publish it in another high-impact Journal (Q1/Q2).

Further Information

For any further questions or comments regarding this call for proposals, feel free to contact us via the following emails:

Dr. Luis F. Morán-Mirabal, IFE Living Lab and Call Coordinator, lmoran@tec.mx
Dr. Héctor G. Ceballos, Director of the IFE Living Lab & Data Hub, ceballos@tec.mx