Mahmoud Abdulwahed

There are three main types of laboratory: virtual, hands-on and remote. The literature review of laboratory education shows that hands-on labs suffer from many disadvantages, which can be overcome by utilizing hybrid laboratory structures that incorporate virtual and/or remote modes.

The investigation of enhancing the laboratory education is achieved via implementing new technical and pedagogical models of conducting laboratories. The technical model incorporates the three access modes to the laboratory experience in one software package called the TriLab. The TriLab concept has been applied to the Process Control Lab at the Chemical Engineering Department of Loughborough University. A pedagogical model of laboratory education based on Kolb’s experiential learning theory and by the utilization of the TriLab components is proposed. The model is built on a hypothesis, which states that the poor learning outcomes of hands-on laboratory sessions can be associated with poor activation of the stages of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. To verify this, educational experimentation procedures were designed and applied to two groups, control and experimental. The statistical analysis of the measurements has supported the stated hypothesis. The proposed pedagogical model is one of the few that provide a way of conducting laboratory education based on constructivist educational theories. The remote component of the TriLab was used in the classroom to explain the application of theory into practice. The students’ opinion has shown a positive attitude towards the approach. Explanations of the findings were achieved in the light of pedagogical and cognitive psychology theories and by means of mathematical modeling via feedback control theory methods.

Keywords: Constructivism, Laboratory Education,  Pedagogy, the TriLab.