The Sustainability of Virtual Laboratories in The Post-Covid-19 Era: Implications for Resilience Strategies to Promote Students' Learning Effectiveness
2023-09-14, 10:30– (Asia/Tokyo), 4F Large Conference Room

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to the traditional delivery of engineering education, as institutions and universities were forced to move to online and hybrid formats to prevent the spread of the virus. During the pandemic, the use of virtual laboratories replaced physical laboratories to a certain extent in supporting the learning process in most institutions. In view of the end of COVID-19 in sight, this shift to a virtual approach has presented a question for educators to understand the sustainability of virtual laboratories in the post-COVID-19 era and how virtual laboratories can be effectively integrated into the curriculum for future teaching and learning development. This research used a quantitative data collection method (i.e. a teacher survey; N=22) to evaluate the eight potential sustainability strategies that addressed the three main research questions. According to the research, the majority of respondents agreed that virtual laboratories could provide a valuable addition to the quality of education and help students meet the learning objectives of their courses. The study concludes that resilience strategies must be formulated to promote students' learning effectiveness and the sustainability of virtual laboratories in the future. Additionally, the study found that the proposed sustainability strategies influenced teachers' satisfaction and motivation, with mitigation measures, encouragement measures, and collaboration measures being more effective than actions for integration, quality assurance, and compliance mechanism. Overall, the research highlights the need for resilience strategies to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of virtual laboratories in the future, and it provides insights for educators and institutions on how to implement virtual laboratories effectively in the post-COVID-19 era.


This research evaluates the sustainability of virtual laboratories in engineering education in the post-COVID-19 era. It concludes that virtual labs can provide a valuable addition to education quality and help students meet learning objectives. Resilience strategies must be formulated to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of virtual labs in the future.


Keywords

virtual laboratory; science and engineering; higher education; sustainability; resilience.

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