Pedagogical research

Virtual laboratories

Virtual laboratories represent a key supportive technology that can help us combat the reduction in students’ laboratory hours imposed by the high costs, limited resources and facilities and time pressures associated with traditional laboratories. We provide free and openly available virtual laboratory training for university, high school, and middle school chemistry and biology education. Our virtual laboratories are used by over 1300 students every year.​

• We study the impact of a 360° virtual laboratory environment on bio- and chemical engineering education.​
• We use pedagogical, psychological, and neurological measurements to investigate the effects of virtual laboratory environments on students' learning, experiences and emotional patterns.​
• Our research has shown virtual laboratories to enhance learning and reduce nervousness and anxiety about laboratory work.

Virtual laboratories are available on the AALTOLAB website

Novel teaching and assessment methods

The increasing student intake into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields also creates pressure on the university teaching staff to reduce teacher-student interaction time and employ ineffective learning approaches like mass lectures. To answer the heterogenous learning needs of large 70-200 student populations, we continuously develop our teaching by ideating new learning and assessment methods.  

• We investigate how innovative teaching approaches like Guided inquiry learning and Flipped learning affect learning, self-efficacy, motivation, and students’ perceptions of the teaching-learning environment. 
• We study the impact of modern assessment methods like peer- and self-assessment on outcomes like learning and experiences.
• Our results show that even when approaches like Guided inquiry learning and Flipped learning are scaled to large classes, they still enhance learning and improve student experiences. 

Student wellbeing and learning

Student wellbeing has become a prominent research topic as awereness about the striking prevalence of study-related burnout has increased

• We explore how student wellbeing and study-related burnout are linked to students’ approaches to learning, their perceptions of teaching and assessment and learning itself at the course level.
• We use advanced statistical methods like latent profile analysis and linear mixed models to analyse longitudinal survey data from chemical engineering students.
• Students utilising an unreflective approach to learning tend to experience higher levels of study-related burnout.