Virtual laboratory for enhancing students’ understanding on abstract biology concepts and laboratory skills: a systematic review

Abstract

The virtual laboratory has been widely used in biology learning at all levels of education, but it remains a challenge for countries with technological shortages. Many biological concepts were abstract and difficult to be understood through simple explanation or even difficult to do in a laboratory. Utilization of virtual labs in biology learning, especially in higher education needs to be reviewed about the characteristics of contents, and function and its efficiency to assess the specific variables. Thus, this systematic review was carried out to analyze research articles published from 2010 to 2018. The articles were selected using the PRISMA. The articles were obtained from Google Scholar, the Science Direct, and the Journal of Science Education, ERIC, and Journal of Biological Education. In total, 199 articles were found. The general analysis was conducted. The results yielded 47 articles to be further analyzed by looking at the content and results of the study. Twenty-three articles were obtained and analyzed. Journal content analysis was focused on the selected topic, the dependent variables, sample size, effect size, research design, data collection techniques, research objectives, and the results. Cell or molecular biology was the most widely used topics in the virtual laboratory. Students’ conceptual understanding was the most studied variable, some studies examine students’ affective and psychomotor skills, but only a few studies examine the learning process. Most biology virtual labs were developed using the Adobe Flash Player application with 3D animation. The results suggested for further research to develop a virtual biology lab that is more inquiry-based, and capable of assessing students’ conceptual change and science process skills which not have been widely studied.