COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF VIRTUAL AND OUTDOOR LABORATORY STRATEGIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF N.C.E BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN KATSINA AND KANO STATES, NIGERIA

The study is a Comparative Analysis of Virtual and Conventional Indoor Laboratory Strategies on the Performance of N.C.E Biology Students in Katsina and Kano States, Nigeria. The study developed 4 Research Objectives one of which is to: Compare the effectiveness of virtual, and convectional indoor laboratory strategies in teaching biology concepts. The study was guided by 4 research questions and 4 null hypotheses. Quasi-experimental research using a test-retest method of pretest and posttest was adopted for the study. A sample of 156 N.C.E III biology students comprising 95 males and 61 females were randomly selected from the population of 357 students of which 213 are males and 114 are females. The instrument used to collect data was Biology Concept Performance Test (BCPT). At the end of the treatment data was collected and analyzed using Means and standard deviations to answer the research question while t-test and ANOVA Statistics were used to answer the null hypotheses. The results obtained showed that the use of the virtual laboratory strategy enhances the academic performance of students more than the conventional indoor laboratory strategy. From the findings recommendations were made one of which is: the use of virtual laboratories should be encouraged among biology teachers by organizing seminars, workshops, and talk shows on the importance of virtual laboratories as an innovative teaching and learning strategy to prepare learners to live and function in a society that relies on technology at every aspect, as working in virtual biology laboratory provide important ways of teaching biology concepts.