Virtual Labs – A platform for remote e-learning

India has been constantly growing mobilization of resources and introducing new initiatives to improve accessibility and enhance education in the University sector in the last decades and progress has been made with considerable variations [1]. Most universities in both urban and rural areas are striving to achieve good quality education with their major limitations being organizing or accessing a standard laboratory environment and lack of technically skilled personnel in the field of biotechnology education [2]. Also, majority of schools in remote areas lack good teachers, good laboratories and other facilities for teaching [3]. Laboratory experiences are vital components in teaching biology courses to apply the theoretical knowledge to practice, in fields such as biotechnology, physical sciences and chemical sciences. To revolutionize the problems in the current trend of education, virtual laboratories are becoming a new technology that have a promising role in supporting the education institutes by providing a new learning environment for users [4].

As a part of analyzing the effective role of virtual lab education, we conducted workshops and hands-on sessions for the secondary school students from rural and urban areas in Kerala. A total of 200 students participated in our study. The main aim of our work was to focus the self learning ability of the students using virtual lab education platform. Also we were in the process of analyzing the students’ engagement in learning process and to monitor their self organization abilities. We provided the students with a personal computer/laptop/tablet [5] and provided opportunity to learn a simple experiment of their own interest. Later, feedback data were collected using direct approach. Students stated that these ICT enabled techniques are more informative in delivering the concepts in an interesting manner that catches their attention towards learning. 

Fig.1. K12 students using virtual labs during VALUE workshops

The study has been extended amongst K12 students of different schools, to analyze their behavioral changes and psychological facts with the usage of virtual labs in their learning curriculum.

Fig.2. Hands-on session of Biotechnology Virtual labs

References

1. Shyam Diwakar, Rakhi Radhamani, Gopika Sujatha, Hemalatha Sasidharakurup, Akhila  Shekhar,  Krishnashree Achuthan   Prema  Nedungadi, Raghu Raman and Bipin Nair. Usage and Diffusion of Biotechnology Virtual Labs for Enhancing University education in India’s Urban and Rural Areas, E-learning as a Socio-Cultural System: A Multidimensional Analysis (2014).
2. Rakhi Radhamani, Hemalatha Sasidharakurup, GopikaSujatha, Bipin Nair, Krishnashree Achuthan and Shyam Diwakar. Virtual labs improve student’s performance in a classroom, Proceedings of 1st International Conference on e-Learning e-Education and Online Training, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, September 18–20, (2014).
3. Bipin Nair, Remya Krishnan, Nijin Nizar, Rakhi Radhamani, Karthika Rajan, Afila Yoosef, Gopika Sujatha, Vijilamole Radhamony, Krishnashree Achuthan, Shyam Diwakar, Role of ICT-enabled visualization-oriented virtual laboratories in Universities for enhancing biotechnology education – VALUE initiative: Case study and impacts, FormaMente, Vol. VII , n. 1-2, ISSN 1970-7118, (2012).
4. Radhamani R., Sasidharakurup H., Kumar D., Nizar N., Nair B., Achuthan K., Diwakar S., Explicit Interactions by Users Form a Critical Element in Virtual Labs Aiding Enhanced Education - A Case Study from Biotechnology Virtual Labs, Proceedings of International Conference on Technology for Education (IEEE T4E 2014), Kerala, December 18-21, (2014).
5. Sugata Mitra and Ritu Dangwal., Limits to self- organising systems of learning—the Kalikuppam experiment, Br. J. Educ. Technol., vol. 41, pp. 672–688, (2010).