Instructional Design and Assessment of Student Learning in Cognitive Apprenticeship Virtual Laboratories

In the context of providing an effective capstone experience in experimental process design, with funding from NSF and the Intel Faculty Fellows Program, we have developed two virtual process laboratories, the Virtual Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) laboratory and the Virtual BioReactor laboratory. In a virtual laboratory, simulations based on mathematical models implemented on a computer can replace the physical laboratory. Since real systems do not deterministically adhere to fundamental models, random and systematic process and measurement variation are added to the output. The cognitive apprenticeship approach used is structured around the task of having students determine the operating parameters for chemical processes for volume production through experimental design, interpretation and iteration. In this sense, the virtual laboratory project simulates what expert engineers do in practice, and ends up looking very different than the physical laboratory at the university.

In addition to the software development, instructional design and implementation, we have been developing methods to measure the cognitive processes of students undergoing the virtual laboratories, the social interactions between members of the teams, and student expectations of and metacognitions about their virtual laboratory experience. The mixed methodological perspective of this research targets key project activities to collect data. A primary means of data collection is Protocol Analysis where student groups “think aloud” as they perform the assignment. In addition, samples of written work (Journals and Final Reports) have been analyzed and a method is being developed to characterize the progression of student groups’ model development. Finally, student metacognitions are characterized from coded student survey responses after completion of three different laboratories, two physical laboratories and a virtual laboratory.

By simulating the physical operation of the process and metrology equipment, the virtual laboratory provides scaffolding by reducing the cognitive load associated with the haptic aspects of the physical laboratory and allows students to redirect their cognitive demand to other, often neglected, parts of the experimental design process. In addition, it is believed that, to varying degrees, students form a cognitive partnership with the virtual laboratory artifact; their mental models and the artifact interlock, leading to changes in the student’s working memory model, and, ultimately, to changes in long-term memory representations