A 3-D interactive microbiology laboratory via virtual reality for enhancing practical skills

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) laboratories are a new pedagogical approach to support psychomotor skills development in undergraduate programmes to achieve practical competency. VR laboratories are successfully used to carry out virtual experiments in science courses and for clinical skills training in professional courses. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a VR-based microbiology laboratory on Head-Mounted Display (HMD) for undergraduate students. Student and faculty perceptions and expectations were collected to incorporate into the laboratory design. An interactive 3-dimensional VR laboratory with a 360° view was developed simulating our physical laboratory setup. The laboratory environment was created using Unity with the (created) necessary assets and 3D models. The virtual laboratory was designed to replicate the physical laboratory environment as suggested by the students and faculty. In this VR laboratory, six microbiology experiments on Gram staining, bacterial streaking, bacterial motility, catalase test, oxidase test and biochemical tests were placed on the virtual platform. First-year biomedical science students were recruited to evaluate the VR laboratory. Students' perception of the virtual laboratory was positive and encouraging. About 70% of the students expressed they felt safe using the VR laboratory and that it was engaging. They felt that the VR laboratory provided an immersive learning experience. They appreciated that they could repeat each experiment multiple times without worrying about mistakes or mishaps. They could personalise their learning by concentrating on the specific experiments. Our in-house VR-based microbiology laboratory was later extended to other health professions programmes teaching microbiology.

Keywords: Microbiology; Practical skills; Virtual laboratory; Virtual reality.

Figure 1

Phases of the VR laboratory project based on the ADDIE model Flow chart depicting the different phases of the VR laboratory project based on the ADDIE model: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation.

Figure 2

Screenshots of the VR Microbiology Laboratory. Screenshots depicting the VR microbiology laboratory. (a) The main lobby to choose the experiments, (b) A game on grabbing the different coloured balls to practice with the controls and (c–f) Snapshots of different experiments (c) Work table featuring the inoculation loop being sterilised (d) Picking bacterial colony from an agar plate (e) Filling water in the tray for API test (f) Biochemical identification of bacteria by API test.

Figure 3

Pre- and Post-test scores of knowledge test. Graph depicting pre-test and post-test scores of knowledge test administered to the students (n = 26) who used the VR laboratory. Paired t-test gave a one-sided p value of 0.034.

Figure 4

Student perception of the VR laboratory. Graph depicting student feedback collected on the ease of use, usefulness and experience with the VR laboratory.

Figure 5

Kolb’s experiential learning theory. Diagram depicting the application of Kolb’s experiential learning theory to the students’ learning experience using the VR laboratory.