Abstract
Online learning has gained substantial traction since the popularization of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) over the last decade. After the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning has become an indispensable mode of modern-day education. All educational institutions around the world are now compelled to switch to online classes as a physically safer and more flexible option for teaching and learning during the pandemic. Although many studies have examined the effectiveness of this online T&L mode, almost no attention has been paid to the use of virtual laboratories, which are an important means of teaching practical skills and complicated theories for science and engineering subjects. Like other online methods that have their particular advantages and disadvantages, the utility of virtual laboratories is detracted by the fact that they lack some of the qualities present in the actual experiments seen in traditional learning classrooms. In particular, virtual labs are not as effective as authentic lab experiments in developing soft skills that are typically acquired from students’ teamwork activities, in addition to lacking the ability to assess the various levels of knowledge acquisition, content mastery and student attention in class. Hence, the aim of this paper is to address these issues about the utility and drawbacks of virtual labs in achieving the long-term goals and learning outcomes of STEM education. In addressing these issues, the paper highlights the varying technologies, such as gaming and virtual reality, used by different educational institutions as substitutes for physical engineering laboratories. The final section of the paper discusses some of the ethical issues related to online learning for science and engineering subjects.
Highlights
Designed e-learning has the capacity to provide rich learning environments and inspiring learning experiences for students and is already a major driver for 21st century education, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic
The results indicated that students who learned chemistry with the desktop virtual reality (DVR)/immersive virtual reality (IVR) technology did not improve in terms of perceived motivation, enjoyment, or online presence, while those who used other learning media showed notable differences in the three constructs, with the students preferring IVR to the DVR/IVR
In the past two years, academia has been compelled to make a dramatic shift from traditional classroom learning to online education as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic
Summary
Designed e-learning has the capacity to provide rich learning environments and inspiring learning experiences for students and is already a major driver for 21st century education, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the challenging nature of their specialization, engineering students need to have interactive, hands-on learning opportunities to support their theoretical classroom learning (Barak & Usher, 2019) The provision of such practical activities became a real challenge after the break of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, forcing colleges and universities around the world to quickly transition to online learning (Ferri et al, 2020). Despite the affordances of virtual labs, they may still be insufficient for real learning as many details about engineering content can only be comprehended through practical experience In this case, the knowledge gained by students is often limited by the capabilities of the simulation software being used.
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