Assessing the Impact of Virtual Labs: A Case Study with the Lab on Advanced VLSI

The laboratory is an indispensable component of learning in engineering education. In this paper, we examine the impact of Advanced VLSI Virtual Lab, which is a part of the Government of India´s suite of Virtual Labs, in improving the understanding and learning of students at a small sized university in India. The Advanced VLSI Virtual Lab includes ten simulated interactive experiments in the area of design and application development. Over a hundred Virtual Labs have been proposed and built, but, so far, few have been subject to systematic investigation of their effectiveness in helping the student learn. Our work is one of the first efforts to statistically study the effectiveness of the Virtual Lab. To this end, we designed and conducted pre- and post-tests, and feedback surveys on the lab. The tests and the survey, on analysis, reveal that the lab is effective in enhancing student learning. Our results are encouraging to several teachers in India who are in the midst of using Virtual Labs at their colleges.