VIRTUAL LABS AND STUDENT SUCCESS – AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Laboratory activities are an integral part of the science curriculum. Laboratory activities give a better understanding of the core concepts in science subjects. The hands-on activities give skill level as well as cognitive experience. But this is sometimes impractical in classroom situations as it may be formidable in classroom situations due to the vulnerable hazardous nature of the experimentation.

As a replacement to real lab settings virtual lab settings are used in this study. This research aims to analyze whether students’ academic success in science subjects is influenced by the instruction which involves virtual labs. The sample selected for this study was first-semester engineering students in India. Students feedback was taken into account apart from mathematical techniques while carrying out the study.

The data collection was using questionnaires and summative exams. This was carried out among two groups -group under normal teaching methods and group using virtual lab techniques.

The results obtained show a considerable hike in students’ performance when virtual labs were used for instruction. This result shows the necessity to consider virtual labs in the instruction which will definitely boost students understanding and thus the success rate.