Online Virtual Lab Research Articles

Ex-RL: Experience-based reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) has achieved significant success across various tasks. However, generalizing RL for similar tasks remains a challenge. This study leverages expertise from related tasks to introduce a novel algorithm, Ex-RL, for executing transfer learning in tabular RL. The methodology concentrates on abstracting previous experiences into descriptive data and utilizing such data for similar tasks. The research focuses on classic RL solutions for balancing and anti-balancing, which improve the sample efficiency of the learning process. Studies indicate that weak learners, such as Q-learning, require fewer learning episodes, resulting in a 50% improvement and a higher success rate in the learning process. An online virtual lab was developed to facilitate the execution of the experiments. The code is available at Github.

Ready to Launch: Student Performance in a Fully Online Laboratory Pilot Course

The undergraduate human laboratory course at the University of Missouri provides anatomical education to a large population of health sciences undergraduates. To meet demand, an interdisciplinary team developed and implemented a fully online laboratory section in the fall of 2019 to complement the established hybrid laboratory sections. The current laboratory course is hybrid with one weekly meeting and a substantial online component. The model‐based face‐to‐face lab component of the hybrid sections was replaced by online virtual labs using the 3d4Medical Complete Anatomy app. Students were provided with worksheets to accompany a curated series of screens within the app to replicate the models and stations used in the face‐to‐face labs. Weekly meetings were held via a video conferencing platform to provide additional practice, assistance and opportunities to discuss clinical applications. The purpose of this study is to analyze student performance and satisfaction in a fully online section of a human anatomy laboratory course.The study sample included students enrolled in the fully online lab section (n=10) and the established hybrid lab section (n=405) in the fall of 2019. Student performance data include pre‐course assessments, post‐course assessments and three course exams. Exams consisted of 50 multiple choice questions on tagged models or specimens (physical models and donor materials in the hybrid lab sections, digital 3D models in the online section), histology slides, and radiology images. Questions on the assessments and exams were consistent across lab sections. Scores were statistically compared between the two lab modalities. Other data also collected during the semester included demographic data, mid‐semester evaluations and end‐of semester evaluations.Late semester results indicate that the students enrolled in the online course have higher exam scores compared to students enrolled in the hybrid sections, which possibly reflect the high level of motivation of the students enrolled in the online course. Students in the fully online section have expressed frustration with the app used in lieu of the in‐class models. Data from the pilot course will be used to inform future course organizational decisions.

Critical Components of Formative Assessment in Process‑Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning for Online Labs

In the traditional lab setting, it is reasonably straightforward to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback. Such formative assessments can help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, and assist faculty to recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately. But in an online virtual lab setting, formative assessment has challenges that go beyond space‑time synchrony of online classroom. As we see increased enrollment in online courses, learning science needs to address the problem of formative assessment in online laboratory sessions. We developed a student team learning monitor (STLM module) in an electronic health record system to measure student engagement and actualize the social constructivist approach of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). Using iterative Plan‑Do‑Study‑Act cycles in two undergraduate courses over a period of two years, we identified critical components that are required for online implementation of POGIL. We reviewed published research on POGIL classroom implementations for the last ten years and identified some common elements that affect learning gains. We present the critical components that are necessary for implementing POGIL in online lab settings, and refer to this as Cyber POGIL. Incorporating these critical components are required to determine when, how and the circumstances under which Cyber POGIL may be successfully implemented. We recommend that more online tools be developed for POGIL classrooms, which evolve from just providing synchronous communication to improved task monitoring and assistive feedback.

Government’s Effort in Control Engineering Education in India

AbstractPresent manuscript deals with the Indian government effort in making the control engineering education, an equal standard to any developed country. Control Engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering which has an ample number of applications in the almost every core engineering discipline. This is the field which uses the feedback system to get the appropriate performance of the system without any human interaction. Mathematical modelling for the system designs is now performed on the simulation tools. There are multiple steps taken for control-engineering education by the Indian Government, which is a modern technology, applied in daily use from instruments to spacecraft. This manuscript gives a complete overview of different effort taken by the Indian Government to enhance the control engineering education such as developing online courses, online virtual labs, Scilab software packages, Scilab codes for books & Scilab cloud. NPTEL video courses, which are available on online platform, help the students as well as other academicians who have deep interest in the topics related to the control engineering. Virtual labs give the students power to perform the experiment online without setup of any specialized labs through the internet enable device. Scilab cloud is an open source software platform which gives a platform to the students to design the code for the problem & analysis it by changing the associated parameters with it. Textbook companion project is the associated project with scilab cloud in which scilab codes are developed for the solved examples of the certain engineering books. Doctoral thesis from the Indian institutes can be access through online at shodhaganga. With the implementation of 4G telecommunication technology in India, NPTEL videos, Scilab cloud & virtual lab can be accessed through the smartphone without computers or installing the software in smartphone.

Effects of Implementing a Hybrid Wet Lab and Online Module Lab Curriculum into a General Chemistry Course: Impacts on Student Performance and Engagement with the Chemistry Triplet

Here, we describe the implementation a hybrid general chemistry teaching laboratory curriculum that replaces a portion of a course’s traditional “wet lab” experiences with online virtual lab modules. These modules intentionally utilize representations on all three levels of the chemistry triplet—macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic. The implementation of this curriculum allowed an opportunity to evaluate this new course structure. First, student performance was assessed based on pre- and post-assessments. Second, dialogue from students working through the traditional and module versions of one lab was analyzed for how each format encouraged students to engage with the chemistry triplet. Data suggest both formats led to positive learning gains, but the differences between formats were not statistically significant. However, there was a significant difference in student engagement with the chemistry triplet, with module students showing a higher overall amount of triplet-related dialogue and more conti...

Teaching Online Computer-Science Courses in LMS and Cloud Environment

The author shares his experiences teaching various online computer-science courses (via the Canvas™ and synchronous web conferencing tools) using state-of-the-art free-license software tools for conducting online virtual labs and numerous students' projects. The labs were designed to help students explore modern, sophisticated techniques in several areas of computer science: computer-system analysis and design, programming in C/C++ and Java, software quality assurance, data communication in networking systems, computer security, system simulation and modeling, numerical analysis, image processing, multimedia applications, Web development, and database design and management. All the online courses include “warm-up” exercises and lab-based projects that provide students with knowledge, instructions, and hands-on experience, and that motivate them in selecting topics for technology overviews and research. To concentrate mostly on the students' hands-on training, the “flipped classroom” pedagogy and individual or team tutoring were used in the online classes. The preventive strategies on plagiarism and cheating among students were developed and successfully implemented in the virtual classroom using the Cloud environment.

Implementing Cloud Based Virtual Computer Network Labs for Online Education: Experiences from a Phased Approach

On-line instruction rather easily accommodates courses in some fields such as history, sociology, business administration and political sciences. However, it poses significant challenges for courses in technical fields that require hands-on experimentation. Courses in computer networking area constitute such an example. Given the demand for on-line courses and the trend for migration to online mode, there is a need to devise strategies that would allow students to conduct computing experiments remotely. Virtualization is a rapidly evolving technology that provides opportunities for online computer education. Through virtualization tools, it is possible to convert brick-and-mortar labs into virtual network labs. Using online virtual network lab tools, students may build, troubleshoot and test networks using their personal computers and, thereby, eliminate the commute to the labs. Cloud technology, another rapidly growing field, can help an organization achieve significant savings in IT services and infrastructure costs, as well as enhance IT support for organizational operations. Confluence of cloud and virtualization technologies present new opportunities for online education. However, there are significant issues to surmount in order to apply these technologies to computing-related courses and in particular to online computer networking courses. This paper presents experiences gained from transforming a traditional computer lab into an online virtual domain at the authors' university. The network lab described in this paper is utilized mostly for graduate computer networking, network security and wireless networking courses. The phased approach depicted in this paper should help academic institutions gain insights into technical and operational challenges in building and operating an online virtual lab.

AN INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN MODEL AND CRITERIA FOR DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING ONLINE VIRTUAL LABS

The purpose of this work is to propose a general instructional design model to teach students in faculty of education, especially in department of educational technology how to design and develop online virtual labs in a common way. We have made analyses of previous instructional design models and related studies in regard to the virtual labs to specify diverse features of the proposed model. It was found that the online virtual labs have no conventional instructional design model, especially for designing and developing stages and also no common shape and components. Based on these results, we have reached to a new suggestion model which guides the students in refinement of the future learning environment using recent technology. In this paper, we also present a list of criteria for designing and developing the online virtual labs.as a modern principles for directing designing process of online virtual labs environments to become instructional products. We have made a derivation of these criteria from previous studies related to the virtual labs, e-Learning technologies and some miscellaneous technological resources in educational technology. These criteria would provide the students with educational and technological guidelines to produce the online virtual labs with high quality and efficiency.

Online Labs for Distance Learners: Reflections from an Irish Pilot Study

This presentation presented at International Symposium for Engineering Education, 2008, Dublin City University, Ireland, discusses the introduction of remote online laboratory (lab) work into Communications Technology modules of an undergraduate BSC. in Information Technology (IT) by distance learning. The role of online labs and virtual instruments in undergraduate education is discussed and how they relate to physical labs. Outcomes are presented of a pilot introduction of online virtual labs. An argument is made that the introduction of online virtual lab work is worthwhile. We also argue it is increasingly feasible if suitable tools can be inexpensively sourced, such as from digital learning repositories as described here.

A study on learning effect among different learning styles in a Web-based lab of science for elementary school students

The purpose of this study is to explore the learning effect related to different learning styles in a Web-based virtual science laboratory for elementary school students. The online virtual lab allows teachers to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into science lessons. The results of this experimental teaching method demonstrate that: (a) students in the experimental group using the online virtual lab achieved better grades than those in the control group under traditional class instruction, (b) in the experimental group, grade achievements of students having different learning styles were not significantly different from each other leading us to conclude that the Web-based virtual learning environment is suitable for various learning styles, (c) students with the “accommodator” learning style made the most significant achievements in this study, the scores obtained by the experimental group being remarkably better than those in the control group, and (d) up to 75% of the students surveyed indicated that they preferred using the Web-based virtual lab to reading textbooks only. The results of the experimental teaching and the survey show the feasibility and effectiveness of the Web-based learning environment being studied. It encourages further development of the Web-based virtual lab.