Computer-Aided Experiments (CAE): A Study Regarding a Remote-Controlled Experiment, Video Analysis, and Simulation on Kinematics

Contribution: This work seeks to ascertain the validity of a remote-controlled experiment of the Physics Remote Lab in the educational context, specifically among students from engineering courses. Background: In 2012, it has been started the development of the Physics Remote Lab at the Federal University of Itajubá, Brazil, a laboratory with a collection of didactical remote-controlled experiments. For a while since then, efforts have been directed mainly to technical matters and so, many questions regarding the effectiveness of these experiments as a teaching resource have not been satisfactorily answered yet. The restrictions imposed by the pandemic have provided suitable conditions to assess the effectiveness of this kind of resource. Research Questions: There are two points to be addressed. The first refers to whether remotely controlled experiments can be regarded as a valid didactical tool. The second seeks to ascertain the effectiveness of these digital objects in a very atypical scenario. Methodology: A pretest-intervention-posttest design was chosen, with three groups that totaled 145 students from engineering courses. The groups were submitted to interventions based on a remote-controlled experiment, video analysis, and simulation on kinematics. Nonparametric statistical tests were applied to check for biased groups and to compare the results before and after the intervention. Findings: The results show that all three interventions had a significant impact on the groups and the established I-index suggests that the effects were positive in all of them, despite the peculiar circumstances regarding the pandemic. Compared to other groups, the results for the remote-controlled experiment group showed that it can be as effective as a simulation or a video analysis and the students in this group achieved a better understanding of the concepts as compared to their performance on the pretest.