Share Paper: Virtual Experiment Environment: a Showcase of a Preparation Tool for Laboratory Classes

1. Sjors Verstege, Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Netherlands
2. Julia Diederen, Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Netherlands

Abstract: Laboratory education plays an indispensable role in the conveyance of tacit knowledge, and is therefore an important part of natural science education. The success of laboratory education in terms of learning outcomes depends amongst others on the ability of students to cope with the extraneous cognitive load in the laboratory. This extraneous cognitive load can be reduced through careful student preparation. The aim of this paper is to present teachers and educational developers with an extensive example of a virtual experiment environment (VEE) that was developed to facilitate student preparation for laboratory classes. The VEE contains a self-directed learning task ...