Virtual Reality in an Eco-Niche Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Course: New Practice in Chemistry Lab Teaching

Virtual reality (VR) tools are gaining attention among science educators. However, evaluations of VR's educational effectiveness, particularly in ecological settings and hands-on lab-based undergraduate education (e.g., chemistry), remain limited. In this study, we report our efforts to implement VR as a laboratory pretraining activity in an introductory Organic Chemistry for first year undergraduate students. We developed a VR-integrated pedagogical practice for students (n = 59) enrolled in interdisciplinary studies at Roskilde University Denmark. The study procedure involved (i) a pretest, (ii) a virtual experiment to identify organic reactions performed in a VR simulation, (iii) a real lab experiment of selected organic reactions, and (iv) a post-test. To investigate learning outcomes, survey data were collected and analyzed for reliability and statistical gains across several cognitive and affective aspects of learning. We found that using VR simulations as a pretraining teaching tool improved students' overall cognitive engagement with organic chemistry lab exercises. While there was no significant increase in students' intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, their post-intervention perceived learning scores were quite high. However, implementing VR pretraining intervention in ecological/niche lab courses is complex and involves several technical and pedagogical limitations that warrant further attention.