The effect of interactive tutorial information and purpose built virtual chemistry laboratory on students’ performance

Different Virtual Chemistry Laboratories (VCLs) have been developed where users can perform their experimental work to increase their learning for hands-on chemistry experiments. The existing VCLs are playing a vital role in the enhancement of users’ performance, however, mental/cognitive load on users is a key issue in the existing VCLs. The issue of mental/cognitive load arises due to the complexity of the environment by displaying a number of chemicals, glass wares, and other lab equipments in the VCLs. In this paper, we present a new concept of performing experiments in a Purpose Built Virtual Chemistry Laboratory (PBVCL) with interactive tutorial information (ITI) to minimize mental/cognitive load on users and enhance their performance and theoretical knowledge about the experiment. PBVCL displays only those chemicals and glass wares which are necessary in the current experiment while hiding other unnecessary equipments. During evaluations, fourty-eight (48) students perform the experiments in two different groups using PBVCL and general VCL. Evaluations reveal that the proposed PBVCL provides less mental load and users can easily enhance their performance.