A set of visualization tools to help the student understand complex and dynamic relationships. An analysis coach that helps students evaluate their designs. A design coach that makes suggestions for how a student's design might be improved. The architecture of Articulate Virtual Laboratories. Boxes indicate software components of the architecture, ovals indicate the major problem-specific data structures generated during the course of a student's design activity.
Solid arrows indicate the path taken by a student's design as it is evolved.
Dashed arrows indicate the major information flows between the components. We are currently building AVLs for two domains, engineering thermodynamics and feedback control. The prototype engineering thermodynamics lab is undergoing formative evaluations at Northwestern, Oxford, and the US Naval Academy. The feedback AVL will be tested with college students and also with advanced high-school students. Panitz, B. 1996.