Abstract
Access and personalized instruction required for laboratory education can be highly compromised due to regulatory constraints in times such as COVID-19 pandemic or resource shortages at other times. This directly impacts the student engagement and immersion that are necessary for conceptual and procedural understanding for scientific experimentation. While online and remote laboratories have potential to address the aforementioned challenges, theoretical perspectives of laboratory learning outcomes are critical to enhance their impact and are sparsely examined in the literature. Using Transactional Distance Theory (TDT), this paper addresses the gap through a case study on Universal Testing Machine (UTM). By comparing physical (PL-UTM) and remotely triggerable (RT-UTM) laboratory platforms, the structure and interactions as per TDT are analysed. Characterization of interactivity between remote learners and instructors disclose indicative parameters that affect transactional distances and aid in conceptual understanding in remote laboratory learning environment. An extensive pedagogical study through development of two instruments towards assessing conceptual understanding and perception of platform effectiveness that was conducted both on physical laboratory and RT-UTM showed: (1) remote users conducted experiments 3 times more frequently (2) completed assignments in 30% less time and (3) had over 200% improvement in scores when RT-UTM platform was integrated into mainstream learning.
Highlights
Laboratories are indispensable in pre-university and university level science and engineering education (De Jong et al, 2013; Brinson, 2015; Feisel & Rosa, 2005; Ma & Nickerson, 2006)
physical laboratory (PL) experimentation takes two to three hours to complete due to the need for the instructor to explain the experimental setup and procedure prior to manually loading the specimen into the machine and applying the load. These requirements are minimized in Remote Trigger (RT)-Universal Testing Machine (UTM) platform, due to the specimen being pre-loaded into the RTUTM machine
The results suggest a significant improvement in the conceptual understanding of both Group A (GA)-post and Group B (GB)-post students after performing RT-UTM experiments compared to the pre-experiment (GA-pre and GB-pre) data and the GA-inter data post-physical lab only, no significant difference was found between the two post-experiment groups (GA-post and GB-post)
Summary
Laboratories are indispensable in pre-university and university level science and engineering education (De Jong et al, 2013; Brinson, 2015; Feisel & Rosa, 2005; Ma & Nickerson, 2006). Hands-on learning and trouble-shooting skills acquired in laboratory experimentation complement the classroom lectures (Satterthwait, 2010; Heradio et al., 2016; Tzafestas et al, 2006; Clough, 2002; Gillet et al, 2003) Accreditation agencies such as ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) define their accreditation criteria for programs as those enabling graduates with an ability to apply knowledge. Similar requirements from regulatory bodies such as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Board of Accreditation (NBA) include curricula that enhance engineering knowledge, problem analysis, design and development of investigative approaches to complex problems, modern tool usage and so on (AICTE, 2019) Such curricula are expected to meet the ever-growing industry requirements from a knowledge, skills, and attitudes perspective (Seifan et al, 2020; Gleich et al, 2020). Physical laboratories are fundamental in equipping students of science and engineering with the requisite skills for real-world problem solving
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