Effects of Virtual Laboratory on Chemistry Students’ Learning Outcomes in Quantitative Analysis in Colleges of Education, Oyo State

Abstract

Poor performance in practical aspect of Chemistry has been observed over the years in Nigeria Colleges of Education. This was attributed to many problems faced by the teachers in which an alternative of using a virtual laboratory for teaching Chemistry practical for proper understanding is inevitable. This study investigated the “Effects of Virtual Laboratory on Chemistry Students’ Learning Outcomes in Quantitative Analysis in Colleges of Education, Oyo State. A quasi-experimental design of 2x2x2 factorial matrix which involved pre-test, and post-test group design was employed. One hundred and thirty six (136) 100 Level NCE students’ 
were purposively selected from two (2) State Colleges of Education in Oyo State. The Chemical Concept Achievement Test (CCAT) (KR20=0.80) was used for data collection. Two hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significant and ANCOVA was used for data analysis. Virtual laboratory has a significant main effect on students’ academic achievement in Chemistry (F=672.192 Sig=0.000 df= 136 P<0.0). Conventional method has no significant main effect on students’ achievement in Chemistry (F=0.10, Sig=0.920, df= 47 P<0.05). It was recommended among others that lecturers in Colleges of Education should be trained regularly through seminars, workshops, conferences and short-and long-term training on how to use virtual laboratory to improve their competence in teaching and 
lecture delivery.