Using logging data to visualize and explore students’ interaction and learning with a haptic virtual model of protein-ligand docking

• This study explores students’ interaction and learning with a haptic virtual model of biomolecular recognition. Twenty students assigned to a haptics or no-haptics condition performed a protein-ligand docking task where interaction was captured in log files. Any improvement in understanding of recognition was measured by comparing written responses to a conceptual question before and after interaction. A log-profiling tool visualized students’ traversal of the ligand while multivariate parallel coordinate analyses uncovered trends in the data. Students who experienced force feedback (haptics) displayed docked positions that were more clustered in comparison with no-haptics students, coupled to docking profiles that depicted a more focused traversal of the ligand. Students in the no-haptics condition employed double the amount of behaviours concerned with switching between multiple visual representations offered by the system. In the no-haptics group, this visually intense processing was associated with ‘fitting’ the ligand closer distances to the surface of the protein. A negative relationship between high representational switching activity and learning gain as well as spatial aptitude was also revealed. From an information-processing perspective, visual and haptic coordination could permit engagement of each perceptual channel simultaneously, in effect offloading the visual pathway by placing less strain on visual working memory.

Nyckelord

Interactive learning environments; multimedia systems; pedagogical issues; postsecondary education; virtual reality

NATURAL SCIENCES

NATURVETENSKAP

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