No abstract

The digital cultural heritage field has been developing in parallel with modern archaeology by collecting and storing data from all aspects of field work, from excavations to virtual representations and to exhibitions, and by transforming data into knowledge and new services, ranging from supporting scientists to offering edutainment content. As an integral part of archaeology, the field of archaeometry deals with exploiting laboratory techniques and ICT tools to examine and analyze archeological findings. The present article briefly review works on the use of virtual environments in the digital cultural heritage field, and secondly reviews applications of virtual laboratories in archaeometry and, finally, based on the observation that virtual laboratories are now increasingly finding their way into education, to highlight the key aspects of a proposal to integrate virtual laboratories in Archaeometry education.

Εκπαιδευτικές προσεγγίσεις διερευνητικής μάθησης σε περιβάλλον εικονικού εργαστηρίου για την εκπαίδευση επιστημών Reviewing inquiry-based learning approaches in virtual laboratory environment for science education Abstract In science education, students' active involvement in experimental procedures contributes to higher performance achievements compared to traditional lecturing, as laboratories play a key role and help learners develop the necessary skills of inquiry. Inquiry-based learning, a learning method based on students' personal involvement in the cognitive process through searching, querying and posing questions, is an educational approach where in the case of research, the learner formulates hypotheses which tests them via experimentation and observation of the experimental results. The educational value of the inquiry learning method has been verified in several studies, where the application of the inquiry learning approach resulted in more effective learning, compared to traditional teacher-centered methods. The evolution of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) contributed towards the popularity of the inquiry-based learning, since it supports the development of educational approaches and environments which facilitate the inquiry learning process. Virtual reality laboratories give the user the opportunity to conduct the same scientific inquiry provided by hands-on experiments but with the advantages of the virtual environment. The present study focuses on the identification of the inquiry-based learning applications and methods used based on virtual laboratories in the field of science. The peer-reviewed literature was the main source of information and data. The findings of the reviewed studies indicated that virtual labs, when used in combination with handson labs in inquiry learning, support learners and help them gain deeper conceptual understanding of science.

Although hands-on laboratory experiments have been traditionally used in education, virtual laboratories have become popular in science courses due to their specific features. In this study, we asked for the students’ opinion on using a 3D desktop-based virtual reality biology lab in two different educational settings, upper secondary education (Lyceum) and University. Our findings indicate that both Lyceum and University students found the use of the virtual laboratory interesting, when learning and practicing on the use of an optical microscope. According to the students’ answers in a specially designed Likert-style questionnaire, this virtual reality-based learning experience was rather satisfactory, helped them easily understand the new topic of microscopy and filled them with confidence regarding their capability to conduct the specific microscopy experiment in a real biology lab. These results, combined with similar findings from other studies, suggest that virtual environments are viewed favourably by students and could be used supplementary to traditional teaching methods applied in hands-on laboratories in different educational settings.

Process Mining (PM) emerged from business process management but has recently been applied to educational data and has been found to facilitate the understanding of the educational process. Educational Process Mining (EPM) bridges the gap between process analysis and data analysis, based on the techniques of model discovery, conformance checking and extension of existing process models. We present a systematic review of the recent and current status of research in the EPM domain, focusing on application domains, techniques, tools and models, to highlight the use of EPM in comprehending and improving educational processes.