Identification of the most useful configurations and individual elements of a hybrid undergraduate engineering laboratory through a student survey

Abstract The adoption and utilisation of remote, asynchronous and virtual laboratories (VLs) for undergraduate education has substantially increased post COVID-19. These methods can be integrated with traditional synchronous physical laboratories (PLs) to form hybrid laboratories (HLs). HLs have been compared to other laboratory environments in previous research studies. However, no study has explored, from the students’ perspective, how useful different configurations and individual elements of a HL are for learning. Therefore, this study posed questions to determine the most useful individual elements and configurations of an undergraduate engineering HL. To answer these questions a research methodology was designed. A group of undergraduate engineering students (n = 21) in the Munster Technological University were surveyed to determine their perspectives on the individual elements and configurations of a HL they recently completed in energy modelling. The questionnaire employed multi-item psychometric scales that enabled quantitative analysis. The results showed that 85.7% of students preferred HLs, while 9.5% preferred VLs only and 4.8% preferred PLs only. 95.2% of students found VLs and their asynchronous operation useful, with screencasts of modelling found to be the most useful VL element. 76.2% and 90.5% of students found it useful to interact with their peers and teacher in the PLs, respectively. 85.7% of students thought the VLs helped them in developing an understanding of how energy models work.