2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Perception of Students in Virtual Laboratories: The Role of Context

Presented at ELOS Technical Session 5 - Remote, Virtual, and Digital Realities

Laboratory education is one of the bedrocks of engineering education. VR laboratories have been recently introduced into engineering education to offer holistic learning experiences to learners. Although the goal of VR laboratories is to foster improved learning outcomes, its success is dependent on a range of factors. Amongst these factors are students’ perceptions of satisfaction, learning effectiveness, and utility value. Also, the role of context, in terms of subject matter and level of difficulty, is important as it serves to inform instructional designers and instructors on implementation strategies for specific course contents. While previous studies have observed positive relationships between learners' perceptions of satisfaction, learner effectiveness, and the utility value of virtual laboratory environments, it is still unknown how this relationship varies across different laboratory environments. It is important that the role of context is understood in the design and development of virtual laboratories as certain designs may be better suited for certain contexts with increased scaffolding required for certain difficulty levels. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of context in virtual laboratory design by measuring differences in learners' perceptions of virtual laboratories focused on different concepts.

This study builds on a previous study in which we presented preliminary findings of one of 5 different biomedical engineering virtual laboratories integrated into a Tissue Engineering course. Our guiding research questions are: How did learners' perceptions of the VR labs vary across lab types? To what extent did the perceived utility value and effectiveness of the VR lab modules predict learners’ perceived satisfaction with the learning experience across different lab types? Our study adopts a mixed-method design. We conducted an ANOVA test to measure variances across learners’ responses to adapted satisfaction, learning effectiveness, and utility value surveys. We carried out a thematic analysis of students' responses to open-ended questions to identify influencing factors for quantitative ratings. We also conducted a regression model to identify the predictive ability of the investigated constructs for perceived satisfaction with the learning experience across each of the laboratories. Our results reveal differing perceptions in learners' qualitative responses regarding the level of difficulty and content of course topics in support of the quantitative findings.

These findings shed light on the potential role of context in learners’ perception of virtual laboratories highlighting the importance of adapting design strategies in line with specific course content. In ensuring technology-based learning environments are productive, it is important that we consider domain-specific context as a one-size-fits-all would fail to adequately serve our learners. Recommendations and implications of these findings for instructors and instructional designers are discussed.

Authors

Deborah Moyaki http://orcid.org/0009-0005-7441-0306 University of Georgia [biography]

Deborah Moyaki is a doctoral student in the Engineering Education and Transformative Practice program at the University of Georgia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Educational Technology and is excited about the possibilities technology offers to the learning experience beyond the formal classroom setting. Her research focuses on improving the educational experience of engineering students using virtual reality labs and other emerging technologies.
Isaac Damilare Dunmoye University of Georgia [biography]

Isaac Dunmoye
PhD in Engineering (in view), University of Georgia, USA,
M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2022.
B.Eng. in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, 2016.
Dr. Cheryl T. Gomillion http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1727-3801 University of Georgia [biography]

Dr. Cheryl Gomillion is Associate Professor in the School of Chemical, Materials, & Biomedical Engineering, part of the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia (UGA). She received her B.S. in Biosystems Engineering with an emphasis in Applied Biotechnology from Clemson University, and she completed both her Master’s and Ph.D. in Bioengineering also at Clemson University. Dr. Gomillion’s long-standing research interests are in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Specifically, the work of her research group focuses on three general areas: (1) design and evaluation of biomaterials for therapeutic purposes; (2) application of materials for engineering tissue systems; and (3) advanced engineering strategies for developing in vitro models and culture systems. Dr. Gomillion is committed to the integration of her biomedical interests with education research endeavors, with a specific focus on evaluating classroom innovations for improving biomedical engineering student learning and exploring factors that facilitate success for diverse graduate students.
Dr. Dominik May http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9860-1864 University of Wuppertal
Dr. Nathaniel Hunsu University of Georgia [biography]

Nathaniel Hunsu is an assistant professor of Engineering Education. He is affiliated with the Engineering Education Transformational Institute and the school of electrical and computer engineering at the university. His interest is at the nexus of the res

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