Volume 11 Issue 4 ( December 2024)

The Laboratory section plays a significant role in the Engineering Physics course. However, due to many challenges in the past few years, professors and laboratory instructors have to conduct these sessions virtually through online sessions. In this research, we evaluate the process of virtual learning and compare it to traditional learning sessions. We have conducted the study on the ohm’s law experiment in the physics laboratory at Ajman University, involving 175 first year students. The grades and answers to questionnaires are analyzed in three datasets. The first dataset involved 59 students who conducted the experiment through a face- to-face laboratory under the supervision of the laboratory instructor (Real Learning). In the second dataset, 67 students performed the experiment virtually with the online supervision of a laboratory instructor (Virtual Learning). 49 students are involved in the third dataset where instructions are given virtually to students, and then they conducted the experiment through the traditional face-to-face laboratory method (Virtual-Real Learning). The comparison showed that the third method VRL is the most significant method towards grades and understanding achievements, and the VR method showed the lowest performance. In addition, student feedback has also marked the VRL method as the most favorable scenario.

Keywords: Physics laboratory; Real Learning; Virtual Learning; Face-to-Face laboratory; Virtual Learning; Ohm’s Law.