VR Education
UCC - Science Studio
For University College Cork, we developed a digital twin of their high-tech Science Studio, Ireland's first, for use in virtual reality (VR). The Science Studio now hosts two virtual labs: Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) and benchtop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Both labs can be run in single-player or multiplayer, with up to eight students and two instructors sharing the same virtual lab.
Multiplayer adds significant complexity to a project, but it's what students asked for. In testing, 75% of students who had already used a single-player VR lab preferred working together in multiplayer. Each student has their own bench and instrument, and can choose, repeat or reset any module at any time without holding up the rest of the group, just like a real lab where everyone is at a slightly different stage. Instructors can join students inside VR, or watch a single-player session cast to a tablet.
The CE Lab
The CE lab is made up of five modules. It starts with an introduction to VR that builds up the controls step by step, from walking to the bench to two-handed filtering. Students then set up the CE instrument (cutting the capillary, burning the detection window and loading the cassette), prepare their buffer solutions, run a full analysis in the ChemStation software, and diagnose common CE problems. Instrument set-up and troubleshooting aren't part of the real-life lab, so VR gives students context they wouldn't otherwise get. A full run takes around 75 minutes, and 93% of students said the length was just right.
The NMR Lab
The NMR lab is made up of seven modules, built around the Magritek Spinsolve 90 benchtop NMR spectrometer. After an introduction, students prepare samples for three different analyses, then set up the Spinsolve and load their sample. They go on to work through three real-world applications: measuring a compound's potency against an internal standard, confirming a structure by linking 1D and 2D spectra to a 3D molecular model, and working out the make-up of a solvent mixture. A final troubleshooting module asks students to use sample observations, instrument information and spectral patterns to decide what to check next.
LMS Integration
Both labs connect to the university's learning management system (LMS), so student grades from each lab are recorded there. For VR to be adopted in teaching, it has to fit into the existing curriculum rather than sit alongside it, and LMS integration is a crucial part of that: lecturers see VR results in the same place as the rest of the module. Students see the value too: 77% of those who used the CE lab agreed that VR experiments are a valuable addition to their curriculum.
The carefully designed, realistic equipment and interactions closely match their real-world counterparts, so students are better prepared when they move into the physical laboratory.
Part of the Virtual Labs Project 2020 - 2026 and winner of Team Prize for Excellence in Higher Education.
The Virtual Labs Project is a large-scale, highly innovative collaboration focused on the use of virtual laboratories as a teaching tool for the chemical sciences.
