Incorporating Computational Thinking Into Virtual Laboratories to Enhance Learning Motivation, Engagement, and Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Background: Virtual laboratories are used to supplement or even replace physical laboratories in engineering education. Although these virtual laboratories allow students to learn foundational experimental skills, they do not provide the learners with the chance to develop higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Computational thinking (CT) is an approach to problem-solving. Incorporating the CT approach into virtual laboratories to enhance problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills is still understudied. Objectives: This study investigated the effect of incorporating the CT approach into virtual laboratories on the learning motivation, engagement, and HOTS of students. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the impact of the proposed approach. Forty-eight undergraduate electrical engineering students participated in this study. Pre- and post-test questionnaire data on learning motivation, engagement, and HOTS were collected from both an experimental group that utilised virtual laboratories and a computational thinking approach and a control group that used virtual laboratories only. Results and Conclusions: The result of the quantitative analysis revealed that incorporating the CT approach into virtual laboratories resulted in a significant difference in learning motivation, engagement, and HOTS between the experimental and control groups. These findings point out that incorporating the CT approach into virtual laboratories positively affects the learning motivation, engagement, and HOTS of learners who are enrolled in practical courses.