The virtual lab

The idea of 'virtual labs' is gaining traction as companies and institutions try to expand their reach, cut costs, enhance student understanding, and provide a different kind of hands-on training for future scientists. The inventors of virtual labs extol the benefits of technology for impr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature (London) Vol. 562; no. 7725; pp. S5 - S7
Main Author Jones, Nicola
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group 04.10.2018
Subjects
Computer simulation
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Genetic diversity
Heat exchange
Laboratories
Learning
Meat
Muscles
Online instruction
Students
Virtual environments
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Summary:The idea of 'virtual labs' is gaining traction as companies and institutions try to expand their reach, cut costs, enhance student understanding, and provide a different kind of hands-on training for future scientists. The inventors of virtual labs extol the benefits of technology for improving education, and emerging data suggest they are right: virtual labs do improve some test scores and help students to prepare for real-life scientific investigations. In the animalgenetics lab, for example, the player visits a farm to sample meat, before learning how to develop a DNA test for double-muscled cattle (a genetic variation that allows animals to have more muscle fibre and less fat) and then playing detective to find out whether meats labelled as organic are abiding by the rules. HIGH SCORE Many studies have found little difference in learning outcomes between students who do virtual lab experiments and those who do them for real, whether it is undergraduates learning about heat exchange, or children at elementary school investigating springs1.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/d41586-018-06831-1