Abstract

RIANO-LUNA, Campo Elias  and  PALOMINO-LEIVA, Martha Liliana. Analytical, hierarchical process to evaluate three virtual labs in a higher education setting. Entramado [online]. 2015, vol.11, n.1, pp.194-204. ISSN 1900-3803.  https://doi.org/10.18041/entramado.2015v11n1.21102.

The purpose of this work was to standardize a protocol using an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to evaluate the use and relevance of virtual labs or simulated academic practices in a virtual learning environment for distance higher education. To this end, a quantitative, descriptive approach was used for evaluating and making a hierarchical categorization of three virtual commercial chemistry labs. Ten students and seven professors, who are experts in theoretical and practical courses offered in virtual classrooms, participated in the study, using the Moodle e-learning platform. The following criteria were analyzed: functionality (FUN), reliability (FIA), usability (USAB), efficiency (EFI), maintainability (MAB), portability (POR), technical aspects (ASPT), psycho pedagogical aspects (ASPS), communicational aspects (ASPC), and administrative aspects (ASPA) of virtual labs. The review and hierarchical classification of the criteria and virtual labs (VLs) with these variables were carried out using paired comparison matrices. The consistency ratio of the evaluators' paired decisions was 0.05885. Since it was lower than 0.10, it can be concluded that this approach is suitable not only for an objective review and analysis of virtual labs, but also for a hierarchical classification of virtual labs based on their attributes.

Keywords : Virtual labs; analytical hierarchical process; comparison matrices; standardization; geometric consistency index; consistency ratio.

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