Mixed Reality for an Enhanced Laboratory Course on Microfluidics
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Date
2022-03-08
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Natural sciences can be difficult to grasp because physical and chemical phenomena can take place across time and length scales that are beyond the reach of human perception. This problem is particularly true for students attempting to learn about microfluidics, a discipline that involves intricate engineering methods and fluid phenomena that are unintuitive and unique to the microscopic scale. New learning paradigms that combine established principles from the learning sciences and mixed reality (MR) technologies may facilitate the understanding of microfluidics and help connect the experimental methods to the underlying physical and chemical processes. Yet only a few studies have implemented learning sciences principles into the design of MR experiences for university laboratory courses. We thus created ALETHA, an interactive and immersive MR learning platform to help students learn about microfluidics and microfabrication techniques. We designed ALETHA to include scaffolding, gamification, control-of-variables, and multimodal representation strategies that are known to enhance intuition building and learning. We hypothesized that MR will enhance student understanding of microfluidics and microfabrication and help them build intuitions about the processes involved at that scale. To test whether ALETHA improved affective learning outcomes, we employed quizzes and surveys and compared the performance of students that participated in the course with MR to that of a cohort using traditional paper protocols. Overall, we measured a greater building of intuition and engagement for MR students. Our new learning platform provides a useful and practical example of how MR can be implemented to learn challenging interdisciplinary topics such as microfluidics.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
99 (3)
Pages / Article No.
1272 - 1279
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Laboratory Instruction; Upper-Division Undergraduate; Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives; Multimedia-Based Learning
Organisational unit
09619 - Schürle-Finke, Simone / Schürle-Finke, Simone