Enhancing Distance Learning of Science--Impacts of Remote Labs 2.0 on Students' Behavioural and Cognitive Engagement

Background: With the increasing popularity of distance education, how to engage students in online inquiry-based laboratories remains challenging for science teachers. Current remote labs mostly adopt a centralized model with limited flexibility left for teachers' just-in-time instruction based on students' real-time science practices. Objectives: The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of a non-centralized remote lab on students' cognitive and behavioural engagement. Methods: A mixed-methods design was adopted. Participants were the high school students enrolled in two virtual chemistry classes. Remote labs 2.0, branded as Telelab, supports a non-centralized model of remote inquiry that can enact more interactive hands-on labs anywhere, anytime. Teleinquiry Instructional Model was used to guide the curriculum design. Students' clickstreams logs and instruction timestamps were analysed and visualized. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether engagement levels influence their conceptual learning. Behavioural engagement patterns were corroborated with survey responses. Results and Conclusions: We found approximate synchronizations between student-teacher-lab interactions in the heatmap. The guided inquiry enabled by Telelab facilitates real-time communications between instructors and students. Students' conceptual learning is found to be impacted by varying engagement levels. Students' behavioural engagement patterns can be visualized and fed to instructors to inform learning progress and enact just-in-time instruction. Implications: Telelab offers a model of remote labs 2.0 that can be easily customized to live stream hands-on teleinquiry. It enhances engagement and gives participants a sense of telepresence. Providing a customizable teleinquiry curriculum for practitioners may better prepare them to teach inquiry-based laboratories online.