When learning about the real world is better done virtually: A study of substituting computer simulations for laboratory equipment

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26. These questions follow from those in the Electric Circuits Concept Evaluation (ECCE) and are part of Workshop Physics: http://physics.dickinson.edu (Ref. [23]).
27. Notably, the poorest performance is observed on question 3 (predicting current flow through bulb 1). Researchers at the University of Washington have demonstrated that this is a particularly difficult concept to master, and students generally do not perform well (Ref. [21]). However, here we make no claims about the absolute effectiveness of the curriculum, but rather the effect of using differing tools in a somewhat standard curriculum. Future studies examine the role of using these tools with other curricula (Ref. [20]).
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33. We suspect there are some benefits to using real equipment, but we did not measure them here.
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35. We do not suggest that troubleshooting circuits is a less valuable skill. Rather, the goal of the laboratory did not focus on such skills, and so the need for students to do substantial troubleshooting prevented them from focusing on the main idea of the laboratory (to develop a model of simple circuits).
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