Industrially Situated Virtual Laboratory Project
Current People: Samuel Gavitte, Irene Pentakidis, Tom Ekstedt
Sample Papers
Koretsky, M. D., Amatore, D., Barnes, C., & Kimura, S. (2008). Enhancement of student learning in experimental design using a virtual laboratory. IEEE Transactions on Education, 51(1), 76-85.
Gilbuena, D. M., Sherrett, B. U., Gummer, E. S., Champagne, A. B., & Koretsky, M. D. (2015). Feedback on professional skills as enculturation into communities of practice. Journal of Engineering Education, 104(1), 7-34.
Koretsky, M. D., Nefcy, E. J., Nolen, S. B., & Champagne, A. B. (2022). Connected epistemic practices in laboratory‐based engineering design projects for large‐course instruction. Science Education.
Hirshfield, L. J., & Koretsky, M. D. (2021). Cultivating creative thinking in engineering student teams: Can a computer‐mediated virtual laboratory help?. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 37(2), 587-601.
Koretsky, M., Kelly, C., & Gummer, E. (2011). Student perceptions of learning in the laboratory: Comparison of industrially situated virtual laboratories to capstone physical laboratories. Journal of Engineering Education, 100(3), 540-573.
Sherrett, B. U., Nefcy, E. J., Gummer, E. S., & Koretsky, M. D. (2013). An Expert Solution to Assess an Industrially Situated, Computer-Enabled Design Project. Journal of Engineering Education, 102(4), 541-576.
Koretsky, M. D., Vauras, M., Jones, C., Iiskala, T., & Volet, S. (2019). Productive disciplinary engagement in high-and low-outcome student groups: Observations from three collaborative science learning contexts. Research in Science Education, 1-24.
Hirshfield, L., & Koretsky, M. D. (2018). Gender and participation in an engineering problem-based learning environment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 12(1), 2.
Over the last fifteen years, our group has developed, implemented, and studied an innovative learning system in the Industrially Situated Virtual Laboratory Project. Central to the learning system are a set of virtual laboratories that provide a context for student teams to practice engineering process development and develop skills in experimental design. In these systems, computer simulations based on mathematical models provide values of output variables in response to user-selected input variables. Students collect data using realistic, three-dimensional representations of industrial equipment on the computer as they observe phenomena and make measurements. At the same time, they work face-to-face with other students who take the role of fellow development engineers and with the instructor who takes the role of manager.
This work represents a significant paradigm shift in virtual laboratory design within the engineering and science curricula. Most prior virtual laboratory studies focus on instructional designs that replicate physical laboratories at the university (although they may also include representations not possible to observe in physical laboratories such as the flow of electric current or molecular interactions in a vapor). Research studies then naturally use split designs where students complete the same experiment in physical and virtual modes and measures of learning and perception are compared. The virtual laboratory design in our case is fundamentally different; it is industrially-situated in that it provides different industrial scenarios where student teams are tasked with projects that more closely match the work of practicing professionals.
The long-term goal of the project is to contribute to the understanding of how engaging engineering students in authentic, ill-defined engineering tasks facilitates the development of their engineering knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Toward that end, we have studied a variety of aspects of learning and engagement, including the role of modeling, instructor feedback to student teams, novice-expert comparisons, the use of professional skills, creative thinking, and gendered ways of participation. This work has required different methodological approaches than more traditional virtual laboratory studies. Drawing from the tradition of design-based research, we rely on ethnography, videos of interactions, and analysis of work products.