Student motivation in virtual laboratories in bioengineering courses

This research work-in-progress paper displays research work in the area of online laboratories. This study examined the use of a desktop-based virtual environment that emulates an instructional laboratory experiences in the field of bioengineering, more precisely in the area of tissue engineering. This virtual laboratory was used as a homework activity in an undergraduate engineering course at [university] with in total 43 students. The major goal of this research work was to investigate the impact of this virtual lab activity on the students’ overall motivation. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied during the study in form of a post-intervention survey and additional post-intervention interviews with selected students. The interview results are the focus for this particular paper. The interview protocol was informed by Jone’s MUSIC model motivation. The interviews revealed significant insights into the students’ motivation in context with virtual laboratory work and also offered a general understanding of the students’ perspective on virtual, instructional laboratories. Preliminary qualitative analysis discovered that students found the simulation to be very useful to repeat lab procedures. Using the MUSIC model of motivation framework, the qualitative analysis shows that the students appreciate the online simulation in terms of a method to improve understanding but do not find this as a full replacement for hands-on, traditional labs.