Virtual labs are Not
equivalent to authentic labs.
Laura Weis
Miha Lee
Virtual microscope
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http://www.udel.edu/Biology/ketcha
m/microscope/
Virtual Pig dissection
Websites with walk throughs
Cells alive
 AP interactive animations
 AP lab simulations
 Dragon genetics
 Interactive dissections

Drawbacks of Virtual labs
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Do not provide an opportunity for students
to learn by doing.
Create misconceptions.
Do not teach technical lab skills.
Do not provide a full sensory experience.
Do not promote creativity.
Cause students to think things are
disposable.
Virtual labs don’t provide an
opportunity to learn by doing.
In Learning Pyramid

authentic lab activities are more
effective teaching methods that give
students more retention rate than
virtual ones by providing students
the opportunity to learn by doing.
Virtual labs can Create
Misconceptions.
Selecting the variables and data of
software could be biased.
 Virtual labs could fail to reproduce
real phenomena.
 Images & sounds used in virtual labs
have just “maximum likeness” to the
real phenomena.

Virtual labs can Create
Misconceptions.


http://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/AOs/
1s/index.html
STM image of Nickel atoms
Virtual labs don’t teach
technical lab skills.

Virtual labs cannot give students
hands-on experience with
experimental apparatus, equipment,
chemicals and preparations.
The importance of Technical
Lab skills
Virtual labs don’t teach
technical lab skills.

It takes experiences with real tools
and time of practice to master the
skills and techniques used in a
traditional lab.
Virtual labs Do not provide a
full sensory experience.
Virtual labs heavily rely on visual
images and some audio sounds that
are selected by the programmer.
 Instructors could not consider all
experiences when they plan, but
students can learn something useful
from a full sensory experience in a
real lab.

Virtual labs do not promote
creativity.
In a real experiment time, students can
operate their tools and apparatus as
differently as they want.
 Students can design new experiments as
they want, which help students develop
creative thinking ability.
 With fixed program, virtual labs are so
inflexible that they don’t allow students to
have freedom and creativity.

Virtual labs cause students
to think things are
disposable.
Students can repeat an experiment
simulation as many times as
necessary in a virtual lab.
 RESET Syndrome
 Students get insensitive to failure and
danger in a real situation.
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Teacher goals for labs
Students develop cognitive skills and
are engaged cognitively
 Challenge students concepts
 Teach manipulative skills
 Reinforce information

Virtual Labs can only provide for
one of the four goals that
teachers have for labs.
Virtual Labs cannot
replace
Authentic Labs
They are not equivalent.