Supporting student learning of chemical reaction engineering using a socially scaffolded virtual laboratory concept

Abstract

This paper presents an example of open-ended problem solving in the field of chemical reaction engineering using the virtual laboratory (VL) concept. The study was structured as an educational design experiment, which used the VL concept in teaching chemical reaction engineering in the Chemical Engineering degree programme at the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT).The artificial reaction system used in the VL assignment consisted of a small set of coupled reactions in a homogeneous medium. The groups communicated with the ‘staff’ of the VL via Moodle’s discussion forum feature. The students gave written instructions about how and under what conditions their experiments should be performed. The experiments were conducted by the teacher, who ran the simulations using the parameters the students provided.The VL concept proved to be an efficient method for supporting the students’ ability to execute the various subtasks in reactor design in a professional manner. Students had to explicate their understanding of the task, and they could use their cognitive capacity on problem solving rather than the more technical or practical skills of data acquisition. For the teacher, the method provided an opportunity to scaffold the various student groups at different levels. It also helped to distinguish between groups using concept-based approaches and equation-based approaches and to guide the latter toward the approach used by the former.