VLOGS: Virtual Laboratory Observation Tool for Monitoring a Group of Students

Virtual laboratories (VLs) enable students to conduct lab experiments in the virtual world using Virtual Reality (VR) technology, providing benefits in areas such as availability, safety as well as scalability. While there are existing platforms that provide VLs with rich content as well as research works on promoting effective learning in VLs, less attention has been paid on VLs from a teaching perspective. Students usually learn and practice in VL sessions with limited help from the instructors. Instructors, on the other hand, could only receive limited information on the performance of the students and could not provide timely feedback to facilitate students’ learning. In this work, we present a prototype virtual laboratory monitoring tool, created using a design thinking approach, for addressing teaching needs when conducting a virtual laboratory session simultaneously for multiple students, similar to that in a physical lab environment.