A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON USING SEVERAL VIRTUAL

INSTRUMENTATION SOFTWARE IN EDUCATION

Ana-Maria Suduc, Gabriel Gorghiu, Mihai Bîzoi

Valahia University of Targoviste, Unirii Bv., No. 18-22, Targoviste, Romania

Wladyslaw Masior, Maria Latka

Regional In-Service Teacher Training Centre "WOM", ul. Komorowicka 48, Bielsko-Biala, Poland

Keywords: Virtual Experiments, Cabri Geometry, LabView, Crocodile Clips, Comenius 2.1. Project.

Abstract: Using Virtual Experiments become one of the main methods for Science teaching in actual Education. Their

power on creating simulation-based learning environments is well-known and many teachers have already

adopted the virtual experiments to be used in their classrooms. The great extension of the Virtual

experiments determined 9 institutions to propose a Socrates-Comenius 2.1. European project called VccSSe

- Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education project (code: 128989-CP-1-2006-1-RO-

COMENIUS-C21) coordinated by Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania which has as main objective

to adapt, develop, test, implement and disseminate training modules, teaching methodologies and

pedagogical strategies based on the use of Virtual Instruments, with the view to their implementation in the

classrooms. In the first year of the project, three software products were chosen for developing the process

of training: Cabri Geometry II, LabVIEW and Crocodile Clips. This paper presents the results of a

comparative analysis, made by the tutors who trained the in-serviced teachers on using the mentioned

software products.

1 INTRODUCTION

In general, setting up demonstrational experiments

needs time and effort. These setups must be tested

and reset before they are displayed. Real

experiments may also require technique expertise

and a lot of work. A modern solution implies the use

of virtual instrumentation in the teachers’

demonstration experiments. Virtual instruments are

in fact software applications which, concerning their

functions and appearance, imitate real or realistic

instruments or equipment (Kántor and Gingl, 2002).

From an educational point of view, Virtual

Experiments support students to learn scientific

phenomena and concepts. The responses of the

learning processes that involved Virtual Experiments

have demonstrated that the virtual environments can

be used as a useful methodology in Science

education for school students (Shin, 2003).

In this sense, in the last period, several European

projects targeted on promoting Virtual Experiments

in Education. Lab developing training systems

which integrate virtual experimentation and

intelligent tutoring technologies become usual

subjects. Beside previous projects, VccSSe project is

addressed - on the one hand - to in-service teachers

training on using virtual instruments (VIs) in the

teaching process of different Science disciplines

(Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry) and - on the

other hand - to the pupils (as end-users) who benefit

by the implementation of the Virtual Experiments in

the classrooms. In addition, the project partnership

assumes to build pedagogical approaches in a virtual

space (VccSSe e-Space) able to offer efficient ways

of using specific tools for logical understanding of

the fundamental concepts in Sciences.

2 VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

ENVIRONMENTS

In the frame of the above mentioned VccSSe project

(http://www.vccsse.ssai.valahia.ro), the partnership

435

Suduc A., Gorghiu G., Bizoi M., Masior W. and Latka M. (2009).

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON USING SEVERAL VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION SOFTWARE IN EDUCATION.

In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 435-438

DOI: 10.5220/0001975604350438

 SciTePress

composed by 9 educational institutions from

Romania, Spain, Poland, Finland and Greece,

prepared and developed specific materials for

training on using Virtual Instrumentation in Science

Education. The training materials were designed to

in-service teachers from primary and secondary

schools involved in Sciences subjects in the

partners’ countries. As a decision of the project staff,

the training materials presented three Virtual

Instrumentation environments (LabView, Crocodile

Clips and Cabri Geometry) (Gorghiu (coord.), 2007)

and the participants were asked to select one of the

software environments for understanding its main

functions and creating at least one learning object

that has to include a virtual application.

In order to give more help to the course

participants in the selection of the Virtual

Instrumentation environment to use, it was provided

a set of already made simulation-based virtual

instruments, organized by area and category. This

set of VIs is on-line provided in the VccSSe e-

Space, integrated in the project web site, special

designed to support the teachers’ activities. The

main science areas are: Mathematics, Physics,

Chemistry and Digital Electronics.

Through e-Space, the partnership aims to offer

examples of virtual instruments (free accessible by

any web site visitor) which can be used to teach a

wide range of science lessons. The VI examples

aims to: (a) give a better understanding of VI

environments, (b) provide an idea of what topics can

be better taught using VIs (c) and help teachers to

create the final products.

The training sessions were provided using the

Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic

Learning Environment) e-learning platform. When

necessary, special face-to-face learning sessions

were held for given supplementary explanations and

presentation. Hereinafter are presented several

considerations regarding the software products used

for training (Suduc et al., 2008).

2.1 LabVIEW

LabVIEW software was the first option for training

activities. It is an intuitive graphical programming

language with built-in functionality for simulation,

data acquisition, instrument control, measurement

analysis, and data presentation. This software is

suitable for creating a wide range of applications in

different areas of industries but also in education for

Science subjects teaching.

From the student’s point of view, LabVIEW has

many advantages. The first one is the intuitive

graphical interface that allows using the “drag and

drop” technique to create specific user interfaces for

the applications with pre-built objects. The

application functionality can be specified by

assembling block diagrams. The intuitive graphical

nature of LabVIEW allows students to focus on the

theory being taught and not on the tool manipulation

and on the programming nuances. The time to

develop complex applications is shorter than using a

general programming language. Because LabView is

specifically design for engineers and scientists, and

it is used in a wide range of areas, the students’

transition from school to industry is smoother.

From the teacher’s point of view, the additional

materials provided by National Instruments

represent a real help in curriculum developing. The

Measurement & Automation Experiments Library

contains experiments written by educators that show

the use of National Instruments products in

academic labs around the world. The Courseware is

a collection of related experiments that encompasses

an entire course or topic. Every experiment and

courseware is free to download, ready-to-use, easy-

to-modify.

Another LabVIEW advantage is offered by the

possibility to remotely control the applications,

facility that opens a new window in the technical

distance teaching.

All these benefits with the very unique software

licensing give the possibility to improve the face-to-

face and distance education.

2.2 Crocodile Clips

Other two environments were proposed by the

partners to be used in training: Crocodile Clips and

Cabri Geometry II Plus. The new tools were

proposed as alternatives which can fit their

necessities for being suitable with the national

curricula.

The Crocodile Clips simulation packages are

developed specifically for education and allow

students and teachers to recreate experiments, model

mathematical theories or simulate real life quickly

and easy. Crocodile simulators let students

experiment in a safe, accurate environment, and

come with a wealth of ready-made simulations and

models. Crocodile Clips includes four packages:

Crocodile Physics, Crocodile Chemistry, Crocodile

ICT and Crocodile Mathematics. In the frame of the

VccSSe project, the first two packages were selected.

The main Crocodile Clips advantages are related

to the user-friendly interface and curricula focus

features for the primary and secondary school. In

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436

order to easily learn how to use these tools, the

Crocodile Clips developers provide many useful free

training videos.

2.3 Cabri Geometry II Plus

The mathematics teachers had also the opportunity

to use the Cabri Geometry II Plus software

environment. Cabri allows the dynamically

exploration of Euclidian, transformational and

coordinate geometry. It makes the math’s concepts

easier to learn thanks to its kinesthetic learning

approach. It is easy to create a geometric figure, an

equation or graph a function on the Cabri screen -

which comes alive as a manageable object. Cabri

Geometry II Plus is an environment recognized by

experts in pedagogy, specifically for its simplicity of

use and solid educational foundation.

3 METHOD

After the end of the Virtual Instrumentation in

Science Education course development and its first

edition, the chosen software environments were

evaluated, taking into consideration the following

ten criteria: (1) usability, (2) collaboration, (3) active

learning, (4) expression of students’ knowledge, (5)

holistic approaches in learning, (6) interesting

activities, (7) promoting pupils’ reflection, (8)

providing appropriate feedback, (9) designing

various activities and (10) concept / content teacher.

The whole analysis was made based on a

questionnaire with 10 questions related to the criteria

mentioned above. The questionnaire was filled by

the course tutors and covered the partners’

institutions which participated in the project. 31

tutors, with technical and pedagogical background,

filled in the questionnaire. The tutors have been

asked to choose one of the five answers: Not good,

Weak, Middle, Good, Very good for all the criteria.

The answers were collected and processed with the

view to evaluate the Virtual Environments software

and to take decisions regarding eventual needed

modifications for the second edition of the course.

4 RESULTS

Assuming the percentage as a ratio of the Very Good

answers (over 50% of them - for a given criteria),

the strengths of the respective software can be

stated. On the other hand, the ratio of the

weaknesses was evaluated as more than 25% of the

negative answers (Middle, Weak, Not good) for a

given criteria. Having in view those remarks,

concluded information tables (strengths /

weaknesses) can be expressed.

Table 1: Final image of the strengths analysis.

Software product Strengths

Cabri Geometry

usability, active learning,

promoting pupils’

reflection*, providing

appropriate feedback*,

designing various

activities*

LabVIEW

active learning, interesting

activities, promoting

pupils’ reflection,

providing appropriate

feedback*, designing

various activities

Crocodile Clips

active learning**,

concept/content teacher**

Observations can be emphasized also concerning

the opinions with major differences (*) and the

criteria which have the biggest percentage of Very

good answers, but nevertheless, they are not

predominant (**).

Table 2: Final image of the weaknesses analysis.

Software product Weaknesses

Cabri Geometry designing various activities

LabVIEW holistic approaches in learning

Crocodile Clips

collaboration, promoting

pupils’ reflection, providing

appropriate feedback,

designing various activities,

concept/content teacher

Using the ratio mentioned above, the software

which stands out with respect to the required criteria

is indicated in Table 3 and Figure 1.

A general result can be drawn on the basis of the

overall evaluation of the software. Cabri Geometry

has a global appreciation rated at 92%, LabVIEW at

85% and Crocodile Clips at 72%.

The very good appreciation of Cabri Geometry

environment is not a big surprise as it provides a real

opportunity to approach a variety of subjects

concerning Euclidean Geometry. We think that its

great usability, the possibility for providing a real

active learning and an appropriate feed-back brought

it very near of both Mathematics teachers and

students.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON USING SEVERAL VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION SOFTWARE IN

EDUCATION

437

Table 3: Result of the standing out for each criteria.

Criteria Software

usability (1) Cabri Geometry (A) 71%

collaboration (2) Cabri Geometry (A) 29%

active learning (3) Cabri Geometry (A) 57%

expression of students’

knowledge (4)

LabVIEW (B) 33%

holistic approaches in

learning (5)

Cabri Geometry (A) 29%

interesting activities (6) LabVIEW (B) 56%

promoting pupils’

reflection (7)

LabVIEW (B) 89%

providing appropriate

feedback (8)

Cabri Geometry (A) 72%

designing various

activities (9)

LabVIEW (B) 67%

concept/content teacher

(10)

LabVIEW (B) 33%

Figure 1: Criteria – “Very good” peaks representation.

LabVIEW also presented strong educational

features and good feed-back on expressing of the

students’ knowledge, designing interesting and

various activities, promoting pupils’ reflection or

expressing a powerful concept / content teacher.

More, the teachers and students (even they are acting

in lower secondary education) can change the point

of interest on the graphical user interface and

programming language. In this direction, LabVIEW

proposes a programming environment very good

adapted to the easy designing of professionally

interfaces or even real-time simulations of the

experimental situations.

Finally, Crocodile Clips, despite of its large scale

usability, was insufficient pointed to win a criteria.

But, as this analyze is going to be repeated after the

second edition of the Virtual Instrumentation in

Science Education training modules, it is a chance to

change the situation in a way. In addition, a free and

multi-platform dynamic mathematics software

(GeoGebra) will be included in a similar analysis.

As GeoGebra has received several international

educational software awards, it is possible to refine

some of the results given here.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Virtual Instruments are interactive tools with a

tremendous potential to make an immense difference

in education. The enthusiasm manifested by the in-

service teachers trained in the frame of the VccSSe

project and the pupils’ positive feedback proves the

project main objective accomplishment.

The results of the comparative study do not

reflect the real weaknesses and strengths of the

software presented above. The results are reflecting

only the tutors and local coordinators perception on

these software features and their applicability in the

frame of the VccSSe project.

The study planned after the second edition of the

teacher training course will provide a more real

image on these environments due to the experience

gained by the tutors in the previous edition.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was funded through Project 128989-CP-

1-2006-1-RO-COMENIUS-C21 from European

Commission, Education and Training, School

Education: Socrates: Comenius. We thank all Project

institutions and all the participants for their

cooperation and work.

REFERENCES

Gorghiu G. (coordinator), 2007. Applications of Virtual

Instrumentation in Education, Bibliotheca Publishing

House, Targoviste, Romania.

Kántor, Z., Gingl, Z., 2002. Virtual instruments perform

real experiments in the physics class, 3rd European

Conference on Physics Teaching in Engineering

Education, K. U. Leuven.

Shin, Y.S., 2003. Virtual Experiment Environments

Design for Science Education, Proceeding of the

Second International Conference on Cyberworlds

(CW'03).

Suduc, A.M., Bîzoi, M., Gorghiu, G., 2008. Virtual

Instrumentation Environments Used in the VccSSe

Project, 8th Conference: Virtual University, Warsaw

University of Technology, June 18 - 20, Warsaw.

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