Effect of a virtual chemistry laboratory on students' achievement

It is well known that laboratory applications are of significant importance in chemistry education. However, laboratory applications have generally been neglected in recent educational environments for a variety of reasons. In order to address this gap, this study examined the effect of a virtual chemistry laboratory (VCL) on student achievement among 90 students from three different ninth-grade classrooms (an experimental group and two control groups). Study data were gathered with pre and post chemical-changes unit achievement (CCUA) Test, laboratory equipment test (LET), and unstructured observations. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS (version 16.0). Comparisons were made within and between groups. It was concluded that the developed virtual chemistry laboratory software is at least as effective as the real laboratory, both in terms of student achievement in the unit and students’ ability to recognize laboratory equipment.