colLab

ColLab: A Virtual Laboratory

Collaborative Laboratory or ColLab is a website for students and teachers that promotes having fun just like in a game while interacting and learning just like in a physical classroom set-up with the necessary equipment. ColLab allows students to access multiple laboratory software from any web browser without having the computing power and memory necessary to run it locally. Upon registration, the users will confirm whether they are a teacher or a student. Different features for teachers and students are available. After login, the students will have a home page where they can view and access their classes, progress, and the different laboratory software available. Through the portal, teachers will be able to reinforce lessons with the use of visual novel - type exercises that increase the effectiveness of learning by promoting it in a more interesting and immersive way. The exercises incorporate the available software to solve the given situations. The teacher may input test cases to allow automatic checking capabilities for programming solutions while still allowing professors to override this through manual checking and give feedback to students. For exercises that require a single output, the teacher may also utilize automatic checking by giving the required output to the portal. Overall, this solution will not feel like a compromise, but rather an advantage due to its better effectiveness in promoting learning through a creative and fun way.