The effectiveness of virtual laboratories as a contemporary teaching tool in the teaching of electric circuits in Upper High School as compared to that of real labs

The present article compares the effectiveness of virtual labs, and that of real school-labs in teaching electric circuits at Upper High-School. The 73 participating learners were divided in two groups, the group that used the virtual lab (VEL), and the group that used the real lab (REL). The data were collected using a DIRECT (v. 1.0) type questionnaire, containing 29 suitably formulated questions, clarified by oral interviews. The data analysis revealed no significant difference between the 2 groups in their conceptual understanding, regarding the basic concepts of electric circuits. Those individual differences that did appear to be significant were observed in the 3 out of 12 teaching objectives, and all were in favour of the real-lab group. All these 3 were further investigated in detail and found to relate directly to the teaching approach followed. Overall, either of the teaching approaches tested will decisively help students to develop an investigative attitude relating to everything scientific, their cooperative skills, and their ability to express important queries with clarity and precision. © 2013 IEEE