LABSTER – VIRTUAL LABORATORY SIMULATIONS

Objectives

“Empowering the

next generation of scientists

to change the world”

Meeting societal and economic challenges

There is a significant social challenge in that many young people today largely perceive science

careers as boring and inferior to other career paths. Key reasons can be found in the lack of focus on

exciting real-world applications of science and the predominance of traditional teaching methods far

removed from young people’s daily lives – i.e. often dominated by online presence, games and

technology.

A major economic challenge for educational institutions and society is that institutions are facing

economic pressure. High cost laboratory equipment is a prohibiting factor to education institutions’

continued growth and their ability to reduce the gap between academic studies and career

development. A large number of institutions are removing laboratory experiments when faced with

budget limitations, causing a severe impact on student skill development, and leads to graduates

lacking essential skills for work in their intended industries.

Real life engagement

Disruptive innovation is required to tap the vast potential for increasing learning outcomes and

motivation at scale, while significantly reducing costs. The music and movie industry have undergone

significant disruption due to technological advances, and many experts, researchers and politicians

now foresee a similar disruption in the education industry mainly driven by new players in the field.

Labster has collaborated with secondary schools and universities in order to:

Motivate and engage an increasing number of students to engage with science related

studies and careers.

Use photorealistic virtual laboratories and gamified simulations to bring students into a

learning environment that requires complex, creative and competitive problem solving.

Approach

“Bringing together the disciplines of technology advancement,

evidence based product development

and needs led content development”

Gamified Laboratory Simulations for Higher Learning Outcomes and Motivation

Labster is a laboratory simulator accessible in any web-browser or tablet, where students engage

with STEM experiments. Labster simulates a fully equipped laboratory that students are rarely able

to access in real life. Whether used in theoretical courses or in order to support lab courses, Labster

has been documented to enhance the learning efficiency, and increase student motivation (Bonde et

al. Nature Biotechnology, 2014).

Labster: Gamified Laboratory Simulations used at universities and high schools to improve learning

outcomes and motivation while reducing costs. Students can interact with advanced equipment such as

microscopes, Next Generation sequencing equipment and spectrophotometers, and perform experiments by

interacting in a game-like environment.

In the Labster CSI case, students pick up evidence in a

crime scene to analyse in the lab simulator. Most cases

contains “real world scenarios” that increases

motivation and relevance. Other examples include

diagnosing a cancer patient, drug development and

food poisoning.

In Labster, Students can perform costly and time-

consuming experiments. Here an animal

experiment that is most often too expensive

and/or unethical to do for educational purposes

is performed

Quiz questions increase students learning, and as part

of an R&D project we are currently impementing

adaptive learning algorithms to adapt the difficulty level

to the individual student

Interactive 3D animations illustrates what

happens at the molecular level of the

experiment, which is invisible to the naked eye in

a real lab

Labster includes a teacher and student dashboard to

monitor performance and suggest what to revise

The Labster modular lab architecture allows

efficient development and customization

Labster collaborate with leading universities such as MIT, Stanford and Berkeley to ensure that all

aspects of 3D science education software, case study development, gamification, academic

measurement and adaptive learning platforms simulates real-life work as a scientist. Trials and tests

that involve teaching staff and students is also part of ensuring that the laboratory simulations

contribute effectively towards lesson plans and contribute with knowledge and skills that meet

learning goals.

Impact/Results “Leverage technology to create scalable

science education software with increased

learning outcomes and motivation”

Labster’s research and development has led to significantly increased learning outcomes and

student motivation by combining cutting-edge technologies, including gamified 3D laboratory

simulations, adaptive learning algorithms, emotion recognition, and virtual reality with theories from

cognitive, developmental, and career psychology. Labster has created a scalable product that

develops and retains interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) studies

and careers, enhances motivation and learning outcomes for young people in secondary schools and

universities, as well as increasing the likelihood of choosing science courses and life-long careers

within this field. Labster has enabled a transformational change of science education -

From:

Motivational difficulties through traditional study and lecturing methods.

To:

Fully engaged students during one of Labster’s introductory sessions at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Recent studies by the partners of this project published in Nature Biotechnology (Bonde et al. 2014)

showed that students who used gamified laboratory simulations had 76 % higher learning

effectiveness compared with traditional teaching. Furthermore, 97 % stated that the course content

was more interesting when working with gamified simulations and 51 % stated that they would be

more interested in pursuing a career within science after having used the gamified laboratory

simulations.

“After six hours of learning, you might be a bit tired. But at this lecture at 2 PM, all 250 of my students

were ready with their computers on, eager to learn and so excited! The Labster session went really

well: From the built-in user statistics and the feedback I have gotten from my students, I see that using

Labster has been a very positive experience for them, and that they have learned a lot from it.”

Lise Lotte Hansen, Lecturer at Aarhus University, Denmark

Engagement

“Students get exposed to near reality experiences of working in the science field

not available through traditional IT and online-based education”

The virtual laboratory simulations directly support the core STEM learning goals, and thus teachers

will be able to integrate them directly into their teaching without needing any extra time.

Independent research studies show that the blended learning through Labster’s virtual laboratories

and lectures increases learning outcomes. This improvement is in contrast to learning acquired

through lectures alone. The laboratory simulations adds a new dimension to science education as

students get close to real life scenarios and laboratory work – a key contextual component that

cannot be added through traditional educational methods alone.

The most recent research has concluded that digital games and simulations have the potential

to combine learning and assessment, and that this combination is essential for optimal

advancement in the field of education (Gordon Commission, 2013). In science, digital games and

simulations enable learners to see and interact with representations of natural phenomena that

would otherwise be impossible to observe as well as other benefits (de Jong, 2013). The

Learning Science through Computer Games and Simulations report the US National Research

Council stated that in “any newly-emerging field, there is a tension between development and

research. Creative game designers unfamiliar with education research focus on developing new

games and rarely study the effectiveness of their products, whereas cognitive scientists develop

games or simulations for the specific purpose of investigating their effects on learning”. Labster

is currently working with researchers in Europe to bridge the gap between the need to innovate

and the need to do so with an eye for effectiveness. Labster’s ongoing partnership work with

cognitive behaviour and psychology researchers together with user-orientated co-creation with

students and teaching staff will increase the ability to improve the impact achieved through the

laboratory simulations.