Effect of virtual reality-based pre-lab training simulator on students’ learning and skills in laboratory work: A comparative exploration

There is a general agreement that laboratory experiments are vital supplements to lectures in achieving conceptual knowledge in applied sciences. Hands-on skills can be inculcated among students only through laboratory work. The traditional physical labs follow a stereotype format making students to work-out predefined experiments, using pre-set procedures, and usual readings. The system does not promote intuitive understanding, motivation, and active learning. Many research studies have reported that digital educational environments can be very useful in transforming laboratory work and providing a better learning experience. The present study aims to evaluate the impact of virtual reality (VR) based physics laboratory simulator on first-year engineering students’ learning achievements. This research work presents a virtual reality lab environment as an assistive tool for developed VR-Ohm application. The study aims to project the developed application as an assistive tool to prepare students before experimenting in the real physical lab with an informed and motivated approach. Nevertheless, the application can be equally effective when used to understand and perform the experiment in the non-availability of the physical lab due to various reasons such as the absence of the lab, time-constraints, or even a pandemic lockdown. The application was implemented among 180 randomly selected first-year engineering students. A Comparative study of students’ learning achievements using only the traditional physical lab (control group), and that using the VR-Ohm application prior to the physical lab (experiment group) was done to evaluate the impact of both the systems. The comparison of both the systems was done by way of evaluating their effectiveness in terms of srudents’ learning gain, learning motivation, cognitive load offered by the system, and the technology acceptance. The results of the study explored that the VR-Ohm application has significantly impacted the students’ learning through increased achievement and motivation. Additionally, the system was found to cause less cognitive load on the students. This research study proposes to extend the developed VR lab to house more such experiments for students to have a better learning experience and gain.