Interactive Learning for Engineering Education
This project, "Virtual Engineering Laboratory Experiences (EXPLorable EXPLanations)", is a suite of interactive web applets that make engineering concepts tangible. Each applet focuses on a single principle in mechanical science, solid mechanics, stress analysis, structural dynamics, or materials science: change a variable, and the consequences appear immediately.
Good engineering laboratories are expensive, scarce, and timetabled. This project puts free, browser-based versions of those experiences in front of anyone with an internet connection. Research on online and blended learning has shown that well-designed digital resources can match or exceed the effectiveness of traditional face-to-face instruction (Means et al., 2013).
The project has five aims:
1. Democratise Access to Education
Engineering education should not be limited to those with physical access to labs. These virtual labs are free to use in any browser, regardless of where a student is or what their institution can afford.
2. Practical Learning
Many educational platforms stop at theory, leaving students unprepared for the practical application of concepts. These virtual labs bridge that gap with hands-on experimentation.
3. Safe Learning Environment
Virtual labs carry none of the risks of physical experiments, so students can explore freely, including the failure cases a real lab would never permit.
4. Sustainability
Virtual labs are far more sustainable than physical labs. They require no physical space, use no consumable resources, and generate no waste.
5. 24/7 Availability
The labs are available around the clock, whatever a student's time zone, work schedule, or learning pace.
Engineering education traditionally relies heavily on mathematical formulation and theoretical understanding. While essential, this approach often creates barriers for students who learn best through visual and kinaesthetic means. These applets bridge the gap between abstract formulae and physical reality by:
An interactive applet in this context is a focused web application that:
Unlike static diagrams or videos, these applets respond to user input, allowing learners to discover relationships between variables through active exploration rather than passive consumption.
The design of these interactive applets draws upon established educational research in adaptive learning systems, active learning, and visualisation in education. Brusilovsky (1994) identified the potential of adaptive hypermedia systems to tailor educational content to individual learners, demonstrating that interactive, responsive educational tools could enhance knowledge acquisition. Victor (2011) articulated the importance of "explorable explanations" that allow learners to manipulate representations directly and observe immediate consequences, arguing that reactive documents enable deeper understanding through active exploration rather than passive reading.
Research in engineering education has consistently shown that visualisation and interactivity support conceptual understanding. Interactive simulations have been found to facilitate knowledge construction by allowing students to test hypotheses and observe outcomes in real time (de Jong & van Joolingen, 1998). A direct comparison of physical and virtual laboratory formats found that well-designed virtual simulations can be as effective as hands-on experiments for developing conceptual understanding (de Jong et al., 2013). Studies on multimedia learning indicate that combining visual and verbal representations, when appropriately designed, can reduce cognitive load and improve learning outcomes (Mayer, 2001). The use of computer-based simulations in STEM education has been associated with improved conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills (Rutten et al., 2012), and a review of virtual laboratory implementations across science, technology, and engineering confirmed their value as flexible, scalable educational tools (Potkonjak et al., 2016). A large-scale meta-analysis of 225 studies further found that active learning approaches significantly outperform traditional lecturing on measures of student achievement in STEM subjects (Freeman et al., 2014), providing strong empirical support for the interactive, exploration-based design of these applets.
These applets apply principles from constructivist learning theory, where knowledge is actively constructed through experience and reflection rather than passively received. By providing learners with tools to manipulate parameters and observe outcomes, the platform supports experiential learning cycles of action, observation, and reflection (Kolb, 1984).
The platform also aligns with the concept of the Personal Learning Environment (PLE), which positions the learner as an active agent who assembles their own set of tools and resources in support of their learning goals (Attwell, 2007). Because each applet is self-contained and freely accessible without institutional login or fixed sequence, learners can integrate them into their own study practice: returning to specific simulations when needed, exploring topics out of sequence, or using them alongside other resources. This flexibility supports the kind of learner agency central to PLE theory.
Threshold concepts are transformative ideas within a discipline that, once understood, fundamentally change how a student perceives the subject (Meyer & Land, 2003). They are often troublesome to grasp through traditional methods. This platform helps establish these concepts by:
The applets are plain JavaScript running directly in the browser. That choice was deliberate:
The applets are designed with the following principles:
A student with an ageing laptop or a basic phone gets the same applets as everyone else.
This is an open-source project, and contributions are welcome: report an issue, suggest an improvement, write code, or propose a new simulation.
For feedback or bug reports, please contact us via email.
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public Licence, so the educational resources remain free for anyone to use, copy, and adapt.