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Abstract

Virtualization technology has been around for many years, and its use is increasingly becoming common in education, in general and in computing fields, in particular. This can be attributed partly to its potential to reduce costs, boost efficiency and overcome limited resources through its virtual applications such as servers, storage devices and networks. However, the question is: "would that be at the cost of the quality of learning?" Besides, the way virtualized environments impact motivation needs further clarification, since it is a neglected area of research. This quasi-experimental study tried to address such questions through investigating the impact of virtualized networking software (OPNET Network Simulator) on students' learning and motivation. 116 undergraduate students enrolled in a computer networking class at one of the universities in Egypt participated in this study, who were then randomly assigned to an experimental group (N= 59), which used the OPNET Network simulator, and a control group (N= 57) which studied the same content via the traditional physical lab. Two instruments; a networking test, and a Motivation Scale were administered to both study groups prior and post the intervention. Results showed that students of experimental group who used OPNET Networking simulator had significantly higher grades and greater motivation levels than those of the control group.Contribution/Originality: This paper's primary contribution is to find out how virtual learning environments can prove more effective than real environment on both learning and motivation. The current study came to this conclusion by employing a quasi-experimental method, while other studies relied mostly on anecdotal or tentative evidence. INTRODUCTIONVirtualization has spread in all aspects of education, and specifically in computer education, where laboratory work is an essential part of any course. In computing, virtualization refers to the act of creating a virtual, rather than actual version of something, like a virtual computer hardware platform, an operating system, a storage device, or a computer network. Virtualization enables one to try out new operating systems, visit websites one does not trust, host configuration, network services installation, and operation. Virtualized environments were also found useful in in the development of Web-based interactive learning resources in engineering education (Ndahi et al., 2007) and in developing interactive digital media (Tan, 2008;Yildirim et al., 2018).