Online Labs is an educational initiative by CREATE @ Amrita a part of famous Amrita University, the Center for Research in Advanced
Technologies for Education at Amrita University in partnership with
CDAC, Mumbai; under a research grant from the Department of Information
Technology, Government of India. The lab hosts experiments in Physical and Chemical sciences for the students of classes 9 and 10 with content aligned to the NCERT/CBSE curriculum.
The Online Labs is based on the idea that lab
experiments can be taught using the Internet, more efficiently and less
expensively. The labs can also be made available to students with no
access to physical labs or where equipment are not available owing to
being scarce or costly. This helps them compete with students in better
schools and bridges the digital divide and geographical distances. The
experiments can be accessed anytime and anywhere, overcoming the
constraints on time felt when having access to the physical lab for only
a short period of time.
The 'learning-enabled assessment' through the Online Labs,
facilitates in the assessment of; the procedural and manipulative
skills of the experiment, the concepts and understanding of the
experiment and a student's reporting and interpreting skills.
The development of online labs includes the study and
use of mathematical techniques to demonstrate the various complex
functions in diverse areas of science. The labs make use of cutting edge
simulation technology to create real world lab environments. Thorough
study and research is done by research personnel's for better
understanding of the experimental procedures. Real lab scenarios are
captured through live demonstration of the experiment so as to
assimilate information on the procedures and lab equipment.
Visualisation and development of the graphical symbols are done based on
realistic situations and compared with the respective real equipment.
Simulations are made interactive using various authoring tools, thus
recreating and simulating a real lab environment.
