Li Jiaxing, Liang Wenhong
Philosophy Department, School of Humanities and Social Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 30;19(12):e0316269. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316269. eCollection 2024.
With the development of network and simulation technology, virtual laboratories have been widely popularized in engineering education. However, few studies have systematically analyzed and summarized the impact of virtual labs on the effectiveness of engineering education. This study aims to conduct a meta-analysis of published data on the impact of virtual laboratories on engineering students' performance. A total of 709 peer-reviewed publications on this topic were gathered from Web of Science and Scopus, and after strict inclusion criteria were applied, 46 studies from 22 publications were included in this meta-analysis. These studies were controlled experiments and pre-post designs with virtual labs as the intervention, reporting necessary descriptive summary statistics such as mean score comparisons and standard deviations of the two comparison groups. The results indicate that virtual laboratories are a significant predictor of engineering education outcomes, with an effect size (Hedges' g) of 0.686 (95% CI 0.414-0.959). Among these, the effect sizes for "learning motivation" and "learning engagement" are the highest across all types of results, at 3.571 (95% CI 3.042-4.099) and 2.888 (95% CI 2.419-3.357), respectively; this suggests that virtual labs are a key factor in motivating engineering students to engage in learning activities and pursue knowledge and skills. The results show that virtual labs currently lack the ability to completely replace hands-on labs in engineering education. However, they can inspire student motivation and engagement and compensate for the shortcomings of traditional lab facilities. Virtual labs have become an indispensable auxiliary tool in engineering experimental teaching. Therefore, consciously integrating virtual labs with physical experiences is a direction for sustainably developing engineering education in the future.
随着网络和仿真技术的发展，虚拟实验室在工程教育中得到了广泛普及。然而，很少有研究系统地分析和总结虚拟实验室对工程教育有效性的影响。本研究旨在对已发表的关于虚拟实验室对工科学生成绩影响的数据进行荟萃分析。从科学网和Scopus数据库中收集了709篇关于该主题的同行评审出版物，在应用严格的纳入标准后，本荟萃分析纳入了22篇出版物中的46项研究。这些研究是以虚拟实验室为干预措施的对照实验和前后设计，报告了必要的描述性汇总统计数据，如两个比较组的平均分数比较和标准差。结果表明，虚拟实验室是工程教育成果的一个重要预测指标，效应量（Hedges' g）为0.686（95%置信区间0.414 - 0.959）。其中，在所有类型的结果中，“学习动机”和“学习参与度”的效应量最高，分别为3.571（95%置信区间3.042 - 4.099）和2.888（95%置信区间2.419 - 3.357）；这表明虚拟实验室是激发工科学生参与学习活动并追求知识和技能的关键因素。结果表明，虚拟实验室目前在工程教育中还缺乏完全取代实践实验室的能力。然而，它们可以激发学生的动机和参与度，并弥补传统实验室设施的不足。虚拟实验室已成为工程实验教学中不可或缺的辅助工具。因此，有意识地将虚拟实验室与实践经验相结合是未来工程教育可持续发展的一个方向。
