Student Perceptions of Learning in the Laboratory: Comparison of Industrially Situated Virtual Laboratories to Capstone Physical Laboratories

B ackground This study compares students' perceptions of key cognitive processes and specific content afforded by an industrially situated virtual laboratory project and two physical laboratory projects. P urpose (H ypothesis ) 1. How do students' perceptions of the nature of cognition, experimental design, and ambiguity compare across selected virtual and physical laboratory experiences? 2. In what ways do students perceive the virtual and physical laboratories as an authentic experience that is reflective of real‐life engineering? D esign /M ethod Three, free‐response survey questions were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Content analysis was used to establish categories to group the responses, and the coding process had an interrater reliability of 0.90. R esults Student responses showed statistically significant increases in categories of Experimental Design, Critical Thinking, and Ambiguity in the virtual laboratories and in Lab Protocol and Specific Content in the physical laboratories. Additionally, more overall High Cognition statements were observed in the virtual laboratory. Student perceptions of ambiguity shifted from ambiguity in the instruction to an ambiguity in the experimental process itself, and many students were able to suspend disbelief in the virtual laboratories and demonstrated psychological presence, leading to the potential for a rich learning experience. C onclusion The industrially situated virtual laboratories reported in this paper provide affordances for substantially different student thinking about their thinking than the physical laboratories in the same course. This conclusion does not suggest that the differences are a direct result of the medium of the laboratory (virtual vs. physical) but rather the opportunities that the instructional design of each type of laboratory affords.