Review to Analyze and Compare Virtual Chemistry Laboratories for Their Use in Education

Abstract

Different virtual chemistry laboratories (VCLs) have been developed with which students can perform and practice their practical and experimental work, thus increasing their learning before performing the same work in a real chemistry laboratory. In this paper, we present an analysis of the existing virtual chemistry laboratories by identifying their strengths and shortcomings and formulate guidelines for the development of future VCLs with more generalized, realistic, and flexible features.

VChemlab: Alternatif Media Praktikum Virtual Untuk Meningkatkan Sikap Ilmiah Mahasiswa

“…Beberapa ilmuan khususnya dibidang kimia melakukan pengembangan media virtual laboratorium yang dapat digunakan dalam pembelajaran kimia diantaranya IONiC-VIPEr yaitu sebuah pengajaran laboratorium kimia anorganik berbasis website sebagai solusi dalam pembelajaran jarak jauh yang dikembangkan oleh (Nataro & Johnson, 2020). VCLs atau virtual chemistry laboratories adalah pengembangan aplikasi masa depan dengan fitur yang lebih umum, realistis, dan fleksibel dalam pengajaran kimia, baik ditingkat sekolah atau tingkat universitas yang dilakukan oleh (Ali & Ullah, 2020) sedangkan pengembangan Virtual Labs berbasis website untuk pengajaran kimia umum dilakukan untuk melibatkan siswa atau mahasiswa dalam pemecahan masalah yang lebih otentik oleh (Yaron et al, 2010).…”

VR in chemistry, a review of scientific research on advanced atomic/molecular visualization

“…The potential of this virtual tool seems high, and VRL can train many students at a time, training with different initial levels of access, using different learning paces, monitoring personal activities, needs and progress; creating conditions to manage to establish an itinerary or rate of customized learning for each one; and this software makes it possible to store students' task execution data, which can be used for performance analysis and further improvement (Ali and Ullah, 2020). It favors methodological changes, and it breaks down the rigid timeframes of experiences, enabling students to repeat them and avoid any safety concerns.…”

“…Additionally, it is important to indicate that VR provides isolation of the user and therefore a greater concentration in each activity. However, this immersion generates mental and eye fatigue in participants after extended periods of use, usually more than 30 minutes (Ali and Ullah, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, online programs only work in certain circumstances, so many browsers do not support VR software, which is required to display a specific simulation (Ali and Ullah, 2020). In this sense, the Augmented Reality technology can be a cost-effective alternative to VR depictions (Schmid et al, 2020), which often need special headsets and state of the art computers, that most students do not have access to (Ferrell et al, 2019).…”

Immersive Interactive Quantum Mechanics for Teaching and Learning Chemistry

“…refs. [12,29,30,32,33,[35][36][37][38][39][40]). For example, the structure of a large molecule with a complicated three-dimensional shape can easily be inspected from all possible angles, and the rearrangements of the individual atoms of this molecule as it undergoes a certain chemical reaction can be examined with great scrutiny.…”