Equipment is limited or expensive
Students can explore selected concepts before a scheduled lab session or revisit them after it, extending practice beyond equipment availability.
More room to experiment. More chances to understand.
Give learners a way to practise when physical equipment is costly, difficult to access or unsafe to use repeatedly.
Explore a simulation for your subject ↗Start with the everyday need.
A virtual lab is a simulated environment where learners change something, observe a result and investigate why it happened. It gives them another way to explore a process or system, with opportunities to repeat an exercise without consuming physical materials each time.
An exercise is difficult to repeat safely
A simulation can let learners investigate choices and consequences without recreating the physical risk of the real activity.
A topic is hard to picture
Interactive models can make relationships and processes easier to explore, especially when a static diagram does not show what changes over time.
A clear purpose.
A practical next step.
Choose the learning goal
Define the concept or skill, what students should be able to do and where physical practice remains necessary.
Define the model and feedback
Work through the variables, expected behaviour and limits with the relevant subject experts.
Build and review the experience
Create the simulation, check its behaviour against the agreed model and review how learners use it.
BEFORE YOU GET STARTEDQuestions you
Questions you
might be asking.
Plain answers to help you decide what fits your organisation.
Can a virtual lab replace a physical lab?
It depends on the learning goal. Simulations can support preparation, conceptual understanding and repeat practice. Handling real equipment, developing physical technique and working in real conditions may still require a physical lab.
Which subjects can use simulations?
Subjects with processes, relationships or decisions to explore are candidates. Examples include anatomy, irrigation engineering and electrical circuits. Suitability depends on what students need to learn and what can be represented meaningfully.
What makes this different from an interactive course?
A virtual lab centres on exploring how a system behaves: change a variable, run an experiment and observe the outcome. An interactive course can guide learners through explanations, choices and feedback. A course can include a virtual lab.
How do you make sure the simulation is accurate?
The model, assumptions and expected outcomes need subject-expert review. We agree what the simulation represents and its limits, then check its behaviour against that specification.
Can students use it on phones or with limited internet?
Those requirements should shape the design from the start. Device support, performance, offline access and download size depend on the simulation and delivery method; they need to be assessed and agreed.
What do you need from our teaching team?
A topic, learning objectives, representative exercises and access to someone who can validate the subject matter. We can then discuss what the learner should control, observe and explain.
Explore a simulation for your subject.
You do not need a finished brief. Tell us what you want to improve and who it needs to work for.