Amrita faculty members, Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, head of the Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks and Amrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Saneesh P. Francis, Research Associate at Virtual Lab and Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Director, Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology, Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri, published a new journal paper titled, “Augmented Reflective Learning and Knowledge Retention Perceived among Students in Classrooms Involving Virtual Laboratories“, in Education and Information Technologies- the official journal of the IFIP Technical Committee on Educations.

The paper indicates college and university students have better learning and knowledge retention using virtual labs in their classroom education.The paper focuses on characterizing three learning attributes associated with reflective learning, i.e., metacognition, analogical reasoning and transfer of knowledge with assessed college laboratory education blended with ICT-enabled virtual laboratories. Key contributions of this study include: development of assessment of MAT attributes using a combination of multiple choice questions, true/false statements and descriptive questions, assessment of conceptual learning occurring in the laboratory environment and of learning attributes using Virtual Laboratories (VLs) in classroom education.​