Usability and Usefulness of ADVIcE Tool Experiment Design Guidelines for Virtual Laboratories

Abstract

The major problem engineering instructors have when they wish to effectively use any educational technology such as virtual laboratories is the lack of comprehensive guidelines. This paper discusses the design and development of the experiment design guidelines, which enable engineering instructors to design effective virtual laboratory experiments. The instructors follow a step-by-step process for the scientific design of various virtual laboratory experiments and the tool provides guidelines with description of various aspects of the experiment design. The design and development of the ADVIcE online tool was carried out using SDIVE methodology. The summative evaluation of the guidelines was carried out to find out the usability and usefulness. For our survey with feedback from 58 instructors the SUS score for the usability of the ADVIcE tool is 75.3 which is considered above average. So we can claim that the experiment design guidelines are usable. 87 percent of the 58 engineering instructors perceive that the guidelines are useful in their virtual laboratory experiment designs.