Student perceptions of instruction sheets in face-to-face and remotely-operated engineering laboratory learning

The laboratory instruction sheet (sometimes called a laboratory manual), together with the equipment used by students, is an essential resource for laboratory work. It has a direct influence over all the interactions that can occur in the laboratory activity, of which student-equipment is the only common synchronous interaction in both face-to-face and remote-access laboratories. This article offers a student perspective on the function, utility, and importance of laboratory instruction sheets in Engineering along with their preferred design for both face-to-face and remote modes. Both qualitative and quantitative investigations were made for studying students’ perceptions. The laboratory sheet was found to be a contributing factor to student satisfaction for student-equipment interactions in face-to-face laboratories and important to students’ experience in remote-access laboratories in giving them a feel of operating real equipment. Further important findings include the need for the instruction sheet to meet different content requirements and emphases that depend upon the laboratory mode and different levels of student academic achievement.